Contrasting Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) and Concentrix (NASDAQ:CNXC)

Concentrix (NASDAQ:CNXC) and Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.3% of Concentrix shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.6% of Research Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Concentrix shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.9% of Research Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Concentrix and Research Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Concentrix	-13.16%	19.82%	5.62%
Research Solutions	9.28%	27.45%	9.94%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Concentrix and Research Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Concentrix	$9.83 billion	0.18	-$1.28 billion	($21.32)	-1.38
Research Solutions	$49.06 million	1.51	$1.27 million	$0.14	15.86

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Concentrix and Research Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Concentrix	2	1	3	0	2.17
Research Solutions	0	2	3	0	2.60

Concentrix currently has a consensus price target of $32.75, suggesting a potential upside of 11.47%. Research Solutions has a consensus price target of $3.83, suggesting a potential upside of 72.67%. Given Research Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Research Solutions is more favorable than Concentrix.

Volatility and Risk

Concentrix has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Research Solutions has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Research Solutions beats Concentrix on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Concentrix

Concentrix Corporation engages in the provision of technology-infused customer experience (CX) solutions worldwide. The company provides CX process optimization, technology innovation, front- and back-office automation, analytics, and business transformation services, across various channels of communication, such as voice, chat, email, social media, asynchronous messaging, and custom applications. It also offers customer lifecycle management; customer experience/user experience strategy and design; analytics and actionable insights; digital transformation services that design and engineer CX solutions to enable efficient customer self-service and build customer loyalty; customer engagement solutions and services that address the entirety of the customer lifecycle; AI technology that can intelligently act on customer intent to improve customer experience with non-human engagement; voice of the customer and analytics solutions to gather and analyze customer feedback to foster loyalty to, and growth with, clients; analytics and consulting solutions that synthesize data and provide professional insight to improve clients’ customer experience strategies; vertical business process outsourcing (BPO) services; and back office BPO services that support clients in non-customer facing areas. The company’s clients include technology and consumer electronics, retail, travel and e-commerce, communications and media, banking, financial services and insurance, healthcare, and others, as well as global IPOs, social brands, and banks. Concentrix Corporation was founded in 2004 and is based in Newark, California.

About Research Solutions

Research Solutions, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides research cloud-based software-as-a-service software platform and related services to corporate, academic, government and individual researchers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It provides Discover platform that facilitates search discovery across virtually all scientific, technical, and medical (STM) articles available, including free basic search solutions and advanced search tools, which include the Resolute.ai and scite.ai products, a tools that allows for searching and identifying relevant research and find insights in other datasets adjacent to STM content, such as clinical trial, patent, life science and medtech regulatory information, competitor and technology landscape insights in addition to searching the customer’s internal datasets. The company also offers Article Galaxy, a solution that allows research organizations to load their entitlements, consisting of subscriptions, discount or token packages, and their existing library of articles. In addition, it provides Manage platform, a references solution that allows users to access the article inside the platform including setting up personal folders or team folders and allows researchers to markup and take notes on the articles in a supported browser on a desktop or tablet. Further, the company’s platform facilitates the sale of published STM content sold as individual articles. The company was formerly known as Derycz Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Research Solutions, Inc. in March 2013. Research Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.