Head-To-Head Analysis: H&R Block (HRB) & Its Peers

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) is one of 166 publicly-traded companies in the “Diversified Consumer Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare H&R Block to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for H&R Block and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
H&R Block	1	2	1	1	2.40
H&R Block Competitors	1436	3427	5281	196	2.41

H&R Block currently has a consensus price target of $46.67, indicating a potential downside of 10.57%. As a group, “Diversified Consumer Services” companies have a potential upside of 61.90%. Given H&R Block’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe H&R Block has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares H&R Block and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
H&R Block	$3.95 billion	$733.60 million	9.12
H&R Block Competitors	$3.60 billion	$219.82 million	11.49

H&R Block has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. H&R Block is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility and Risk

H&R Block has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, H&R Block’s competitors have a beta of 0.47, suggesting that their average share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

H&R Block pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. H&R Block pays out 32.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Diversified Consumer Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 5.9% and pay out 36.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. H&R Block has increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.1% of H&R Block shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.0% of shares of all “Diversified Consumer Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of H&R Block shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.5% of shares of all “Diversified Consumer Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares H&R Block and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
H&R Block	18.59%	-214.84%	22.56%
H&R Block Competitors	-3.20%	-28.46%	2.44%

Summary

H&R Block competitors beat H&R Block on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

H&R Block Company Profile

H&R Block, Inc. engages in the provision of tax return preparation solutions, financial products and small business solutions. The company was founded by Henry W. Bloch and Richard A. Bloch on January 25, 1955, and is headquartered in Kansas City, MO.