Educational Development (NASDAQ:EDUC) and E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) Head to Head Survey

Educational Development (NASDAQ:EDUC) and E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Educational Development and E.W. Scripps, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Educational Development	1	0	0	0	1.00
E.W. Scripps	1	3	1	0	2.00

E.W. Scripps has a consensus price target of $5.90, indicating a potential upside of 63.43%. Given E.W. Scripps’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe E.W. Scripps is more favorable than Educational Development.

Volatility & Risk

Educational Development has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, E.W. Scripps has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

19.6% of Educational Development shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.8% of E.W. Scripps shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.9% of Educational Development shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of E.W. Scripps shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Educational Development and E.W. Scripps’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Educational Development	8.60%	-18.72%	-14.64%
E.W. Scripps	-54.15%	12.25%	0.75%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Educational Development and E.W. Scripps”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Educational Development	$22.91 million	0.32	$2.33 million	$0.19	4.53
E.W. Scripps	$2.15 billion	0.16	-$100.88 million	($13.18)	-0.27

Educational Development has higher earnings, but lower revenue than E.W. Scripps. E.W. Scripps is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Educational Development, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

About Educational Development

Educational Development Corporation (NASDAQ: EDUC) is a publisher and distributor of educational children’s books and related products. Through its PaperPie business, the company sells books primarily through direct-to-consumer channels, including independent brand partners and online platforms. The company’s product portfolio includes children’s fiction and nonfiction, activity books, reference materials, early-learning resources, and other educational products. It has also distributed titles from Usborne Publishing, a United Kingdom-based children’s publisher, to customers in the United States and Canada.

About E.W. Scripps

The E.W. Scripps Company is a U.S. media company focused on local television broadcasting and national television networks. Its local stations provide news, weather, sports and other programming to communities across the country. Scripps also operates national networks, including ION, Bounce, Grit, Laff, Court TV and Scripps News. These services offer a range of programming, from entertainment and sports to news and courtroom coverage, through broadcast and other distribution platforms. Founded in 1878 by newspaper publisher Edward Willis Scripps, the company developed from a newspaper business into a broadcaster and expanded its national television operations over time.