HireQuest (HQI) Competitors

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, risk, community ranking, media sentiment and valuation.

Which has more risk and volatility, MAX or HQI?

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HireQuest has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of MAX or HQI?

64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.0% of HireQuest shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.5% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.9% of HireQuest shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, MAX or HQI?

HireQuest has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MediaAlpha. MediaAlpha is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HireQuest, 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
MediaAlpha	$864.70M	0.59	-$40.42M	$0.30	25.53
HireQuest	$34.60M	4.29	$6.14M	$0.27	39.22

Does the MarketBeat Community favor MAX or HQI?

MediaAlpha received 32 more outperform votes than HireQuest when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.59% of users gave MediaAlpha an outperform vote while only 69.57% of users gave HireQuest an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
MediaAlpha	Outperform Votes 48 70.59%	Underperform Votes 20 29.41%
HireQuest	Outperform Votes 16 69.57%	Underperform Votes 7 30.43%

Do analysts rate MAX or HQI?

MediaAlpha currently has a consensus target price of $18.29, indicating a potential upside of 138.78%. HireQuest has a consensus target price of $17.50, indicating a potential upside of 65.25%. Given MediaAlpha's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than HireQuest.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86
HireQuest	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media refer more to MAX or HQI?

In the previous week, MediaAlpha had 5 more articles in the media than HireQuest. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for MediaAlpha and 6 mentions for HireQuest. HireQuest's average media sentiment score of 0.66 beat MediaAlpha's score of 0.38 indicating that HireQuest is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MediaAlpha	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
HireQuest	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is MAX or HQI more profitable?

HireQuest has a net margin of 4.04% compared to MediaAlpha's net margin of 1.41%. HireQuest's return on equity of 11.02% beat MediaAlpha's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	1.41%	-11.98%	5.19%
HireQuest	4.04%	11.02%	6.69%

Summary

HireQuest beats MediaAlpha on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.