Comparing Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) and TrueBlue (NYSE:TBI)

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) and TrueBlue (NYSE:TBI) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.0% of Verisk Analytics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.2% of TrueBlue shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Verisk Analytics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of TrueBlue shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Verisk Analytics and TrueBlue”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Verisk Analytics	$3.07 billion	7.95	$908.30 million	$6.51	28.84
TrueBlue	$1.62 billion	0.18	-$47.96 million	($1.88)	-5.22

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

Volatility and Risk

Verisk Analytics has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TrueBlue has a beta of 1.72, indicating that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Verisk Analytics and TrueBlue’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Verisk Analytics	28.24%	-239.55%	18.56%
TrueBlue	-3.35%	-6.26%	-2.65%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Verisk Analytics and TrueBlue, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Verisk Analytics	0	8	6	1	2.53
TrueBlue	1	1	1	0	2.00

Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus target price of $224.79, suggesting a potential upside of 19.74%. TrueBlue has a consensus target price of $7.75, suggesting a potential downside of 21.05%. Given Verisk Analytics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Verisk Analytics is more favorable than TrueBlue.

Summary

Verisk Analytics beats TrueBlue on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, Inc. provides data analytics and technology solutions to the insurance markets in the United States and internationally. It offers policy language, prospective loss costs, policy writing and rating rules, and various underwriting solutions for risk selection and segmentation, pricing, and workflow optimization; property- and auto- specific rating and underwriting information solutions that allows clients to understand, quantify, underwrite, mitigate, and avoid potential loss for risks; catastrophe modeling solutions, which enables companies to identify, quantify, and plan for the financial consequences of catastrophes for use by insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, financial institutions, and governments. The company also provides life insurance solutions for transforming current workflows in life insurance underwriting, claim insights, policy administration, unclaimed property/equity, compliance and fraud detection, and actuarial and portfolio modeling; Marketing Solutions, such as compliant, real-time decisioning, profitability, and risk assessment for inbound consumer interactions; and international underwriting and claims solutions. In addition, it offers claims insurance solutions, which provides analytics in fraud detection, compliance reporting, subrogation liability assessment, litigation, and repair cost estimation and valuation solutions; and casualty solutions, such as compliance, casualty claims decision support, and workflow automation solutions. Further, the company supplies software to the specialty insurance market. The company was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.

About TrueBlue

TrueBlue, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides specialized workforce solutions in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Puerto Rico. It operates through three segments: PeopleReady, PeopleManagement, and PeopleScout. The company PeopleReady segment provides general, industrial, and skilled trade contingent staffing services for construction, transportation, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and renewable energy industries. The PeopleManagement segment offers contingent, on-site industrial staffing, and commercial driver services, which includes on-site management and recruitment for the contingent industrial workforce of manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution facilities; and recruitment and management of contingent and dedicated commercial drivers to the transportation and distribution industries under the Staff Management, SIMOS Insourcing Solutions, and Centerline Drivers brands. The company PeopleScout segment provides recruitment process outsourcing, talent advisory services, and managed service provider solutions including sourcing, screening, hiring, and onboarding services; operates Affinix, a technology platform for sourcing, screening, and delivering a permanent workforce to its clients; talent advisory services, such as employer branding, recruitment marketing, talent insights, diversity, equity and inclusion consulting, candidate assessment, and talent acquisition strategy consulting services; and contingent labor programs including vendor selection, performance management, compliance monitoring, and risk management. TrueBlue, Inc. was formerly known as Labor Ready, Inc. and changed its name to TrueBlue, Inc. in December 2007. The company was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington.