Analyzing Korn/Ferry International (KFY) and Its Rivals

Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY) is one of 19 publicly-traded companies in the “Staffing” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Korn/Ferry International to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Korn/Ferry International and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Korn/Ferry International	0	1	1	0	2.50
Korn/Ferry International Competitors	91	602	742	45	2.50

Korn/Ferry International currently has a consensus target price of $81.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.76%. As a group, “Staffing” companies have a potential upside of 31.80%. Given Korn/Ferry International’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Korn/Ferry International has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Risk and Volatility

Korn/Ferry International has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Korn/Ferry International’s peers have a beta of 0.84, meaning that their average stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Korn/Ferry International and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Korn/Ferry International	$2.76 billion	$246.06 million	16.12
Korn/Ferry International Competitors	$4.43 billion	$37.26 million	7.37

Korn/Ferry International’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Korn/Ferry International. Korn/Ferry International is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.8% of Korn/Ferry International shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.8% of shares of all “Staffing” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Korn/Ferry International shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.1% of shares of all “Staffing” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Korn/Ferry International and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Korn/Ferry International	8.91%	14.49%	7.21%
Korn/Ferry International Competitors	-98.39%	-16.17%	-8.84%

Dividends

Korn/Ferry International pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Korn/Ferry International pays out 41.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Staffing” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.3% and pay out 138.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Korn/Ferry International has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years.

Summary

Korn/Ferry International beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Korn/Ferry International

Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, provides organizational consulting services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consulting, Digital, Executive Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) & Professional Search. The company provides executive search services to recruit board level, chief executive, other senior executive, and general management talent of organizations. It also offers organizational strategy, assessment and succession, leadership and professional development, and total reward services. In addition, the company provides RPO, business project, professional search, and outsource recruiting solutions. Further, the company offers tech-enabled solutions that identify structures, roles, capabilities, and behaviors to drive businesses. It serves public and private companies, and middle market and emerging growth companies, as well as government and non-profit organizations. The company was formerly known as Korn/Ferry International and changed its name to Korn Ferry in January 2019. Korn Ferry was founded in 1969 and is based in Los Angeles, California.