Contrasting Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) and Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS)

Global Payments (NYSE:GPN) and Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Global Payments and Research Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Payments	1	11	14	0	2.50
Research Solutions	0	0	2	0	3.00

Global Payments currently has a consensus price target of $134.33, suggesting a potential upside of 32.40%. Research Solutions has a consensus price target of $5.50, suggesting a potential upside of 79.15%. Given Research Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Research Solutions is more favorable than Global Payments.

Risk & Volatility

Global Payments has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Research Solutions has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Global Payments and Research Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Payments	15.54%	12.21%	5.64%
Research Solutions	-8.41%	-6.59%	-1.96%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Global Payments and Research Solutions”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Payments	$10.11 billion	2.49	$1.57 billion	$6.18	16.42
Research Solutions	$48.21 million	2.08	-$3.79 million	($0.15)	-20.47

Global Payments has higher revenue and earnings than Research Solutions. Research Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Global Payments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.8% of Global Payments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.6% of Research Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Global Payments shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of Research Solutions shares are owned by company 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

Global Payments beats Research Solutions on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc. provides payment technology and software solutions for card, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through two segments, Merchant Solutions and Issuer Solutions. The Merchant Solutions segment offers authorization, settlement and funding, customer support, chargeback resolution, terminal rental, sales and deployment, payment security, and consolidated billing and reporting services. This segment also provides an array of enterprise software solutions that streamline business operations of its customers in various vertical markets; and value-added solutions and services, such as point-of-sale software, analytics and customer engagement, payroll and reporting, and human capital management. The Issuer Solutions segment offers solutions that enable financial institutions and retailers to manage their card portfolios through a platform; and commercial payments, account payables, and electronic payment alternatives solutions for businesses and governments. It markets its products and services through direct sales force, trade associations, agent and enterprise software providers, referral arrangements with value-added resellers, and independent sales organizations. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Research Solutions

Research Solutions, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides research cloud-based software-as-a-service software platform and related services to corporate, academic, government and individual researchers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It provides Discover platform that facilitates search discovery across virtually all scientific, technical, and medical (STM) articles available, including free basic search solutions and advanced search tools, which include the Resolute.ai and scite.ai products, a tools that allows for searching and identifying relevant research and find insights in other datasets adjacent to STM content, such as clinical trial, patent, life science and medtech regulatory information, competitor and technology landscape insights in addition to searching the customer’s internal datasets. The company also offers Article Galaxy, a solution that allows research organizations to load their entitlements, consisting of subscriptions, discount or token packages, and their existing library of articles. In addition, it provides Manage platform, a references solution that allows users to access the article inside the platform including setting up personal folders or team folders and allows researchers to markup and take notes on the articles in a supported browser on a desktop or tablet. Further, the company’s platform facilitates the sale of published STM content sold as individual articles. The company was formerly known as Derycz Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Research Solutions, Inc. in March 2013. Research Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.