Head to Head Comparison: Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) & HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI)

Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) and HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Skillsoft and HireQuest, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Skillsoft	1	1	0	0	1.50
HireQuest	0	1	2	0	2.67

HireQuest has a consensus price target of $19.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.76%. Given HireQuest’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe HireQuest is more favorable than Skillsoft.

Profitability

This table compares Skillsoft and HireQuest’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Skillsoft	-30.00%	-221.25%	3.40%
HireQuest	27.06%	16.35%	12.11%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.0% of Skillsoft shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.0% of HireQuest shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.2% of Skillsoft shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 42.9% of HireQuest shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Skillsoft has a beta of 2.24, indicating that its stock price is 124% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HireQuest has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Skillsoft	$512.67 million	0.14	-$139.82 million	($16.60)	-0.48
HireQuest	$30.64 million	7.85	$6.33 million	$0.57	30.37

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

Summary

HireQuest beats Skillsoft on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Skillsoft

Skillsoft Corp. provides content and platform and instructor-led training services in the United States and internationally. The company's Content & Platform segment engages in the sale, marketing, and delivery of its content learning solutions in areas, such as leadership and business, technology and developer, and compliance comprising individualized coaching, as well as technical skill areas. This segment also offers Percipio, an AI-driven online learning platform that delivers a learning experience through SaaS solutions. Its Instructor-Led Training segment provides training solutions, including information technology and business skills for corporations and their employees by guiding its customers throughout their lifelong technology learning journey by offering relevant and up-to-date skills training through instructor-led and self-paced, vendor certified, and other proprietary offerings. The company markets and sells their offerings to businesses of many sizes, government agencies, educational institutions, and resellers. Skillsoft Corp. is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

About HireQuest

HireQuest, Inc. provides temporary staffing services in the United States. It offers staffing services, including direct-dispatch, executive search, consultant, unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and construction personnel, clerical and administrative personnel, and permanent placement services, as well as commercial and non-CDL drivers, and skilled personnel in the medical and dental industries. The company provides its services under the HireQuest Direct, HireQuest, SNelling, DriverQuest, HireQuest Health, Northbound Executive Search, and MRI trade names. It serves construction, recycling, warehousing, logistics, auctioneering, manufacturing, hospitality, landscaping, and retail industries, as well as dental practices. HireQuest, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Goose Creek, South Carolina.