Head-To-Head Comparison: Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ:CCRN) versus Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY)

Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ:CCRN) and Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Cross Country Healthcare and Korn/Ferry International, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cross Country Healthcare	0	6	0	0	2.00
Korn/Ferry International	0	1	1	0	2.50

Cross Country Healthcare presently has a consensus target price of $17.93, suggesting a potential upside of 40.30%. Korn/Ferry International has a consensus target price of $81.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.50%. Given Cross Country Healthcare’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cross Country Healthcare is more favorable than Korn/Ferry International.

Profitability

This table compares Cross Country Healthcare and Korn/Ferry International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cross Country Healthcare	-1.41%	2.56%	1.84%
Korn/Ferry International	8.91%	14.49%	7.21%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cross Country Healthcare and Korn/Ferry International”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cross Country Healthcare	$1.34 billion	0.31	-$14.56 million	($0.53)	-24.11
Korn/Ferry International	$2.76 billion	1.38	$246.06 million	$4.62	16.01

Korn/Ferry International has higher revenue and earnings than Cross Country Healthcare. Cross Country Healthcare is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Korn/Ferry International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Cross Country Healthcare has a beta of 0.36, indicating that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Korn/Ferry International has a beta of 1.42, indicating that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.0% of Cross Country Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.8% of Korn/Ferry International shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Cross Country Healthcare shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Korn/Ferry International shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Korn/Ferry International beats Cross Country Healthcare on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cross Country Healthcare

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. provides talent management and other consultative services for healthcare clients in the United States. The company’s Nurse and Allied Staffing segment provides traditional staffing, recruiting, and value-added total talent solutions, including temporary and permanent placement of travel and local nurse and, allied professionals; temporary placement of healthcare leaders within nursing, allied, physician, and human resources; vendor neutral and managed services programs; education healthcare services; in-home care services; and outsourcing services. It also offers staffing solutions for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nurse assistants, practitioners, pharmacists, and other allied professionals on per diem and short-term assignments; and clinical and non-clinical professionals on long-term contract assignments, as well as workforce solutions, including MSP, VMS, in- home care, education healthcare, RPO, project management, and other outsourcing and consultative services. This segment provides retained search services for healthcare professionals, as well as contingent search and recruitment process outsourcing services. It serves public and private acute care and non-acute care hospitals, government facilities, local and national healthcare plans, managed care providers, public and charter schools, outpatient clinics, ambulatory care facilities, physician practice groups, and other healthcare providers under the Cross Country brand. Its Physician Staffing segment provides physicians in various specialties, certified registered nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants under the Cross Country Locums brand on temporary assignments. It serves various healthcare facilities, such as acute and non-acute care facilities, medical group practices, government facilities, and managed care organizations. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

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.