Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN) and Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG) Financial Comparison

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

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Healthcare Services Group	0	1	3	0	2.75
Atlantic International	0	0	0	0	0.00

Healthcare Services Group currently has a consensus target price of $16.25, indicating a potential upside of 24.33%. Given Healthcare Services Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Healthcare Services Group is more favorable than Atlantic International.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Healthcare Services Group	$1.72 billion	0.55	$39.47 million	$0.14	93.36
Atlantic International	$442.61 million	0.22	-$135.48 million	($3.96)	-0.39

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Healthcare Services Group	0.61%	11.74%	7.19%
Atlantic International	-31.78%	-3,234.95%	-85.31%

Risk and Volatility

Healthcare Services Group has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atlantic International has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.0% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.6% of Atlantic International shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Healthcare Services Group beats Atlantic International on 12 of the 14 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 Atlantic International

Atlantic International Corp. engages in the design, development, and manufacture of genetic analysis technologies. Its services include RNA sequencing and DNA sequencing. The company was founded by William C. St. Laurent and Daniel R. Jones in 2013 and is headquartered in Billercia, MA.