Critical Survey: CoreCivic (CXW) versus Its Competitors

CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) is one of 354 publicly-traded companies in the “Commercial Services & Supplies” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare CoreCivic to related companies based on the strength of its risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CoreCivic and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
CoreCivic	$2.65 billion	$116.50 million	2.13
CoreCivic Competitors	$2.49 billion	$141.50 million	13.08

CoreCivic has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. CoreCivic is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

85.1% of CoreCivic shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.1% of shares of all “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of CoreCivic shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.5% of shares of all “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for CoreCivic and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CoreCivic	0	1	4	0	2.80
CoreCivic Competitors	1910	6252	9042	665	2.47

CoreCivic presently has a consensus price target of $39.40, indicating a potential upside of 19.18%. As a group, “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies have a potential upside of 10.27%. Given CoreCivic’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe CoreCivic is more favorable than its peers.

Dividends

CoreCivic pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. CoreCivic pays out 11.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out 63.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. CoreCivic is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

CoreCivic has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CoreCivic’s peers have a beta of 2.50, meaning that their average share price is 150% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CoreCivic and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CoreCivic	54.60%	9.27%	4.39%
CoreCivic Competitors	-49.89%	-119.07%	-1.27%

Summary

CoreCivic beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

CoreCivic Company Profile

CoreCivic, Inc. is a U.S. corrections and government-services company that operates correctional and detention facilities under contracts with federal, state and local government agencies. Its services include facility management and related support for people in custody. The company also provides residential reentry services, including transitional housing and programs intended to help people return to their communities. Through its real estate business, CoreCivic owns and develops correctional and detention properties that government agencies may lease.