Head to Head Survey: CorVel (NASDAQ:CRVL) and Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG)

Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG) and CorVel (NASDAQ:CRVL) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Healthcare Services Group and CorVel, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Healthcare Services Group	0	4	4	1	2.67
CorVel	1	0	0	0	1.00

Healthcare Services Group currently has a consensus target price of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.36%. Given Healthcare Services Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Healthcare Services Group is more favorable than CorVel.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.0% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.4% of CorVel shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 44.6% of CorVel shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Healthcare Services Group	3.67%	17.81%	11.06%
CorVel	11.51%	29.92%	17.68%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Healthcare Services Group and CorVel”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Healthcare Services Group	$1.84 billion	0.76	$59.06 million	$0.96	21.30
CorVel	$958.53 million	3.13	$110.34 million	$2.14	27.67

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

Risk and Volatility

Healthcare Services Group has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CorVel has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

CorVel beats Healthcare Services Group on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About CorVel

CorVel Corporation provides workers’ compensation, auto, liability, and health solutions. It applies technology, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing to enhance the managing of episodes of care and the related health care costs. The company also offers network solutions services, including automated medical fee auditing, preferred provider management and reimbursement, retrospective utilization review, facility claim review, professional review, pharmacy, directed care, clearinghouse, independent medical examination, and inpatient medical bill review services, as well as Medicare solutions. In addition, it provides a range of patient management services, such as claims management, case management, 24/7 nurse triage, utilization management, vocational rehabilitation, and life care planning, as well as processing of claims for self-insured payors with respect to property and casualty insurance. The company offers solutions to employers, third party administrators, insurance companies, and government agencies to assist them in managing the medical costs and monitoring the quality of care associated with healthcare claims. CorVel Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is based in Fort Worth, Texas.