SThree (STEM) Competitors

SThree (LON:STEM) and Hays (LON:HAS) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk and community ranking.

Is STEM or HAS more profitable?

SThree has a net margin of 3.33% compared to Hays' net margin of -0.07%. SThree's return on equity of 20.90% beat Hays' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SThree	3.33%	20.90%	10.67%
Hays	-0.07%	-0.84%	2.27%

Do analysts prefer STEM or HAS?

SThree currently has a consensus price target of GBX 345, suggesting a potential upside of 26.14%. Hays has a consensus price target of GBX 120, suggesting a potential upside of 44.06%. Given Hays' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Hays is more favorable than SThree.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SThree	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Hays	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, STEM or HAS?

SThree has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Hays. Hays is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SThree, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SThree	£1.47B	0.24	£48.77M	£37.80	7.24
Hays	£6.91B	0.19	-£4.87M	-£0.31	-267.22

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of STEM or HAS?

83.8% of SThree shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.2% of Hays shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.2% of SThree shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Hays shares 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in STEM or HAS?

Hays received 849 more outperform votes than SThree when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 82.86% of users gave SThree an outperform vote while only 70.47% of users gave Hays an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
SThree	Outperform Votes 29 82.86%	Underperform Votes 6 17.14%
Hays	Outperform Votes 878 70.47%	Underperform Votes 368 29.53%

Is STEM or HAS a better dividend stock?

SThree pays an annual dividend of GBX 17 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.2%. Hays pays an annual dividend of GBX 3 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. SThree pays out 45.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hays pays out -962.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Which has more volatility and risk, STEM or HAS?

SThree has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hays has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to STEM or HAS?

In the previous week, SThree and SThree both had 2 articles in the media. Hays' average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat SThree's score of -0.04 indicating that Hays is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
SThree	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Hays	0 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

SThree beats Hays on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.