Critical Review: Universal Technical Institute (NYSE:UTI) vs. McGraw Hill (NYSE:MH)

Universal Technical Institute (NYSE:UTI) and McGraw Hill (NYSE:MH) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Universal Technical Institute and McGraw Hill, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Universal Technical Institute	0	3	4	0	2.57
McGraw Hill	1	2	8	1	2.75

Universal Technical Institute currently has a consensus price target of $42.83, suggesting a potential upside of 94.41%. McGraw Hill has a consensus price target of $17.20, suggesting a potential upside of 18.83%. Given Universal Technical Institute’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Universal Technical Institute is more favorable than McGraw Hill.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.7% of Universal Technical Institute shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.8% of Universal Technical Institute shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of McGraw Hill shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Universal Technical Institute and McGraw Hill”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Universal Technical Institute	$835.62 million	1.45	$63.02 million	$0.62	35.54
McGraw Hill	$2.12 billion	1.31	$35.32 million	$0.50	28.95

Universal Technical Institute has higher earnings, but lower revenue than McGraw Hill. McGraw Hill is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Universal Technical Institute, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Universal Technical Institute and McGraw Hill’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Universal Technical Institute	3.88%	10.18%	4.02%
McGraw Hill	4.38%	62.57%	8.56%

Volatility & Risk

Universal Technical Institute has a beta of 1.19, indicating that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McGraw Hill has a beta of -0.83, indicating that its stock price is 183% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Universal Technical Institute beats McGraw Hill on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Universal Technical Institute

Universal Technical Institute, Inc. provides transportation, skilled trades, and healthcare education programs in the United States. The company operates in two segments, UTI and Concorde. It offers certificate, diploma, or degree programs under various brands, such as Universal Technical Institute, Motorcycle Mechanics Institute, Marine Mechanics Institute, NASCAR Technical Institute, and MIAT College of Technology. The company also provides manufacturer specific advanced training programs, including student paid electives at its campuses; and manufacturer or dealer sponsored training at various campuses and dedicated training centers. It serves students, partners, and communities by providing education and support services in various fields. Universal Technical Institute, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

About McGraw Hill

At McGraw Hill, our purpose is to unlock the potential of each learner at every stage of life. Our mission is to support educators, learners and professionals around the world with trusted, high-quality content and digital solutions that use data and learning science to adapt to each student as they progress towards their goals. McGraw Hill is a leading global provider of information solutions for education across K-12 to higher education, and through professional learning. We harness the power of content, data-driven insights, and learning science to deliver personalized learning experiences and drive positive outcomes throughout the entire learning lifecycle. We believe that we have positively impacted hundreds of millions of learners and educators with our personalized learning solutions to support learning at scale worldwide. On an annual basis, we serve approximately 60 million learners and educators. We believe McGraw Hill is one of the most trusted and recognized education brands in the world. Based on the results of a third-party survey that we commissioned in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, we believe that, in the United States, on average, 89% of K-12, higher education and medical school students, faculty and administrators would consider McGraw Hill for their classes. Understanding how learning happens is critical to building effective learning solutions, like ALEKS, which has leveraged data science and machine learning to enhance learning outcomes for over 25 years. Over the last decade, we have invested more than $2.0 billion in developing a suite of market leading digital learning solutions. We utilize our data analytics capabilities to generate continuous feedback loops that drive product and go-to-market innovation, which allows us to simplify workflows while creating meaningful learning experiences that are tailored to the needs of each learner. At McGraw Hill, we recognize that the integrity of educational content is of utmost importance, especially as generative AI becomes more integrated into the learning process. With the proliferation of AI-generated generic content, the risks of inaccurate and low-quality information are heightened, which is why our proprietary content is rigorously researched and designed to meet the highest quality standards. We aim to offer vetted content and data-driven learning solutions that educators and learners can trust. With approximately 1,500 sales professionals worldwide as of March 31, 2025, we believe our global sales force is one of the largest in the education sector, underpinning our ability to serve learners, educators and professionals at scale across the learning lifecycle. Our principal offices are located in Columbus, Ohio.