Strategic Education (STRA) Competitors

Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE:BFAM) and Strategic Education (NASDAQ:STRA) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and community ranking.

Is BFAM or STRA more profitable?

Strategic Education has a net margin of 10.44% compared to Bright Horizons Family Solutions' net margin of 5.22%. Bright Horizons Family Solutions' return on equity of 13.63% beat Strategic Education's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	5.22%	13.63%	4.62%
Strategic Education	10.44%	7.61%	5.89%

Do analysts prefer BFAM or STRA?

Bright Horizons Family Solutions currently has a consensus price target of $137.67, indicating a potential upside of 8.87%. Strategic Education has a consensus price target of $112.33, indicating a potential upside of 35.33%. Given Strategic Education's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Strategic Education is more favorable than Bright Horizons Family Solutions.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.70
Strategic Education	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has more risk & volatility, BFAM or STRA?

Bright Horizons Family Solutions has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Strategic Education has a beta of 0.59, suggesting that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in BFAM or STRA?

93.3% of Strategic Education shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Bright Horizons Family Solutions shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Strategic Education shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer BFAM or STRA?

Bright Horizons Family Solutions received 36 more outperform votes than Strategic Education when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.18% of users gave Bright Horizons Family Solutions an outperform vote while only 56.01% of users gave Strategic Education an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	Outperform Votes 418 57.18%	Underperform Votes 313 42.82%
Strategic Education	Outperform Votes 382 56.01%	Underperform Votes 300 43.99%

Does the media refer more to BFAM or STRA?

In the previous week, Bright Horizons Family Solutions had 10 more articles in the media than Strategic Education. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Bright Horizons Family Solutions and 5 mentions for Strategic Education. Bright Horizons Family Solutions' average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Strategic Education's score of 0.54 indicating that Bright Horizons Family Solutions is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	12 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Strategic Education	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, BFAM or STRA?

Bright Horizons Family Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than Strategic Education. Strategic Education is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bright Horizons Family Solutions, 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
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	$2.69B	2.70	$140.19M	$2.40	52.69
Strategic Education	$1.22B	1.68	$69.79M	$4.67	17.78

Summary

Bright Horizons Family Solutions beats Strategic Education on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.