Quest Resource (QRHC) Competitors

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

Is HQI or QRHC more profitable?

HireQuest has a net margin of 7.47% compared to Quest Resource's net margin of -9.34%. HireQuest's return on equity of 13.88% beat Quest Resource's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HireQuest	7.47%	13.88%	9.35%
Quest Resource	-9.34%	-13.12%	-3.98%

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, HQI or QRHC?

HireQuest has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Quest Resource. Quest Resource 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
HireQuest	$34.60M	3.99	$3.67M	$0.18	54.44
Quest Resource	$288.53M	0.12	-$15.06M	-$1.21	-1.39

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of HQI or QRHC?

12.0% of HireQuest shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.2% of Quest Resource shares are owned by institutional investors. 43.5% of HireQuest shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 22.9% of Quest Resource shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer HQI or QRHC?

In the previous week, Quest Resource had 4 more articles in the media than HireQuest. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Quest Resource and 1 mentions for HireQuest. Quest Resource's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat HireQuest's score of 0.00 indicating that Quest Resource is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
HireQuest	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Quest Resource	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer HQI or QRHC?

HireQuest presently has a consensus target price of $13.00, suggesting a potential upside of 32.65%. Quest Resource has a consensus target price of $2.25, suggesting a potential upside of 33.93%. Given Quest Resource's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Quest Resource is more favorable than HireQuest.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HireQuest	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Quest Resource	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.67

Which has more volatility and risk, HQI or QRHC?

HireQuest has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quest Resource has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

HireQuest beats Quest Resource on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.