Head to Head Comparison: HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) and Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN)

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) and Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, risk and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

HireQuest has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atlantic International has a beta of 1.86, indicating that its stock price is 86% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HireQuest	4.04%	11.02%	6.69%
Atlantic International	N/A	-298.20%	-42.32%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares HireQuest and Atlantic International”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HireQuest	$36.28 million	5.15	$6.14 million	$0.11	121.36
Atlantic International	$27.89 million	8.88	-$5.63 million	($8.24)	-0.60

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for HireQuest and Atlantic International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HireQuest	0	0	2	0	3.00
Atlantic International	0	0	0	0	0.00

HireQuest presently has a consensus price target of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 38.58%. Given HireQuest’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe HireQuest is more favorable than Atlantic International.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

12.0% of HireQuest shares are held by institutional investors. 43.9% of HireQuest shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.3% of Atlantic International shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

HireQuest beats Atlantic International on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HireQuest

HireQuest, Inc. provides temporary staffing services in the United States. It offers staffing services, including direct-dispatch, executive search, consultant, unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and construction personnel, clerical and administrative personnel, and permanent placement services, as well as commercial and non-CDL drivers, and skilled personnel in the medical and dental industries. The company provides its services under the HireQuest Direct, HireQuest, SNelling, DriverQuest, HireQuest Health, Northbound Executive Search, and MRI trade names. It serves construction, recycling, warehousing, logistics, auctioneering, manufacturing, hospitality, landscaping, and retail industries, as well as dental practices. HireQuest, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Goose Creek, South Carolina.

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.