Contrasting TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) and DLH (NASDAQ:DLHC)

DLH (NASDAQ:DLHC) and TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for DLH and TransUnion, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DLH	2	0	1	0	1.67
TransUnion	0	6	10	0	2.62

TransUnion has a consensus price target of $94.38, suggesting a potential upside of 30.13%. Given TransUnion’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe TransUnion is more favorable than DLH.

Risk and Volatility

DLH has a beta of 1.44, indicating that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TransUnion has a beta of 1.54, indicating that its stock price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares DLH and TransUnion’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DLH	-8.51%	-10.42%	-4.04%
TransUnion	15.08%	16.29%	6.67%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares DLH and TransUnion”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DLH	$344.50 million	0.16	$1.36 million	($1.48)	-2.64
TransUnion	$4.58 billion	3.04	$455.40 million	$3.79	19.13

TransUnion has higher revenue and earnings than DLH. DLH is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TransUnion, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

67.2% of DLH shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.8% of DLH shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of TransUnion shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

TransUnion beats DLH on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DLH

DLH Holdings Corp. provides technology-enabled business process outsourcing, program management solutions, and public health research and analytics services in the United States. It offers digital transformation and cyber security solutions, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud enablement, cybersecurity ecosystem, big data analytics, and modeling and simulation to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Health Agency, Tele-medicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, and US Navy Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC). The company also provides science research and development services and solutions, such as data analytics, testing and evaluation, clinical trials research services, and epidemiology studies to support multiple operating divisions, including NIH and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Military Health System. In addition, it offers system engineering and integration solutions in the areas of pharmaceutical delivery logistics, fire protection engineering, biomedical equipment, and technology engineering on behalf of the Department of Veterans Affairs, NIWC, Health and Human Services, and other federal customers. The company also provides business process management services under the trademarks, e-PRAT and SPOT-m, as well as the registered trademark, Infinibyte for cloud-based solutions. The company was formerly known as TeamStaff, Inc. and changed its name to DLH Holdings Corp. in June 2012. DLH Holdings Corp. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About TransUnion

TransUnion operates as a global consumer credit reporting agency that provides risk and information solutions. The company operates through U.S. Markets, International, and Consumer Interactive segments. The U.S. Markets segment provides consumer reports, actionable insights, and analytic services to businesses, which uses its services to acquire new customers; assess consumer ability to pay for services; identify cross-selling opportunities; measure and manage debt portfolio risk; collect debt; verify consumer identities; and mitigate fraud risk. This segment serves various industry vertical markets, including financial services, technology, commerce and communications, insurance, media, services and collections, tenant and employment, and public sectors. The International segment offers credit reports, analytics, technology solutions, and other value-added risk management services; consumer services, which help consumers to manage their personal finances; consumer credit reporting, insurance and auto information solutions, and commercial credit information services. It serves customers in financial services, retail credit, insurance, automotive, collections, public sector, and communications industries through direct and indirect channels. The company was formerly known as TransUnion Holding Company, Inc. and changed its name to TransUnion in March 2015. TransUnion was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.