National Research (NRC) Competitors

Upbound Group (NASDAQ:UPBD) and National Research (NASDAQ:NRC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of UPBD or NRC?

90.3% of Upbound Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.3% of National Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Upbound Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of National Research shares are owned by 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.

Which has more volatility & risk, UPBD or NRC?

Upbound Group has a beta of 2.05, meaning that its share price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Research has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is UPBD or NRC a better dividend stock?

Upbound Group pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. National Research pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Upbound Group pays out 107.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. National Research pays out 45.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Is UPBD or NRC more profitable?

National Research has a net margin of 18.78% compared to Upbound Group's net margin of 1.91%. National Research's return on equity of 67.40% beat Upbound Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upbound Group	1.91%	34.15%	7.60%
National Research	18.78%	67.40%	21.92%

Do analysts prefer UPBD or NRC?

Upbound Group presently has a consensus price target of $39.17, suggesting a potential upside of 31.92%. Given Upbound Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Upbound Group is more favorable than National Research.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upbound Group	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83
National Research	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer UPBD or NRC?

National Research received 104 more outperform votes than Upbound Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.67% of users gave National Research an outperform vote while only 38.89% of users gave Upbound Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Upbound Group	Outperform Votes 7 38.89%	Underperform Votes 11 61.11%
National Research	Outperform Votes 111 61.67%	Underperform Votes 69 38.33%

Does the media favor UPBD or NRC?

In the previous week, National Research had 5 more articles in the media than Upbound Group. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for National Research and 2 mentions for Upbound Group. Upbound Group's average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat National Research's score of 0.41 indicating that Upbound Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Upbound Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
National Research	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has higher valuation and earnings, UPBD or NRC?

National Research has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Upbound Group. National Research is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Upbound Group, 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
Upbound Group	$3.99B	0.41	-$5.18M	$1.45	20.48
National Research	$143.06M	2.68	$30.97M	$1.05	15.55

Summary

Upbound Group beats National Research on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.