UMC (OTCMKTS:UMCN) & Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG) Financial Survey

UMC (OTCMKTS:UMCN) and Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and risk.

Profitability

This table compares UMC and Healthcare Services Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UMC	-1,022.22%	N/A	N/A
Healthcare Services Group	2.20%	12.23%	7.52%

Risk and Volatility

UMC has a beta of 33.65, indicating that its stock price is 3,265% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Healthcare Services Group has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for UMC and Healthcare Services Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UMC	0	0	0	0	0.00
Healthcare Services Group	0	4	3	0	2.43

Healthcare Services Group has a consensus target price of $19.40, indicating a potential downside of 0.15%. Given Healthcare Services Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Healthcare Services Group is more favorable than UMC.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares UMC and Healthcare Services Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UMC	N/A	N/A	-$180,000.00	N/A	N/A
Healthcare Services Group	$1.72 billion	0.80	$39.47 million	$0.54	35.98

Healthcare Services Group has higher revenue and earnings than UMC.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.0% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.8% of UMC shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Healthcare Services Group beats UMC on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About UMC

UMC, Inc. provides medical insurance claims coding and processing, electronic medical records storage, chargemaster review, pricing comparison, and accounts receivable management services to healthcare providers. Its customers primarily include hospitals, medical clinics, and physician practitioners in the United States. The company was formerly known as United Medicorp, Inc. and changed its name to UMC, Inc. in May 2007. UMC, Inc. was incorporated in 1989 and is based in Pampa, Texas.

About Healthcare Services Group

Healthcare Services Group, Inc. provides management, administrative, and operating services to the housekeeping, laundry, linen, facility maintenance, and dietary service departments of nursing homes, retirement complexes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals in the United States. It operates through two segments, Housekeeping and Dietary. The Housekeeping segment engages in the cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing of resident rooms and common areas of the customers' facilities, as well as laundering and processing of the bed linens, uniforms, resident personal clothing, and other assorted linen items utilized at the customers' facilities. The Dietary segment provides food purchasing, meal preparation, and professional dietitian services, which include the development of menus that meet the dietary needs of residents; and on-site management and clinical consulting services to facilities. It serves long-term and post-acute care facilities, hospitals, and the healthcare industry through referrals and solicitation of target facilities. The company was incorporated in 1976 and is based in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.