Critical Contrast: Legacy Education Alliance (OTCMKTS:LEAI) vs. Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG)

Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG) and Legacy Education Alliance (OTCMKTS:LEAI) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Healthcare Services Group and Legacy Education Alliance”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Healthcare Services Group	$1.81 billion	0.70	$39.47 million	$0.54	33.28
Legacy Education Alliance	$150,000.00	0.07	-$2.62 million	($0.07)	0.00

Healthcare Services Group has higher revenue and earnings than Legacy Education Alliance. Legacy Education Alliance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Healthcare Services Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Healthcare Services Group and Legacy Education Alliance, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Healthcare Services Group	0	4	3	0	2.43
Legacy Education Alliance	0	0	0	0	0.00

Healthcare Services Group presently has a consensus price target of $19.40, suggesting a potential upside of 7.96%. Given Healthcare Services Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Healthcare Services Group is more favorable than Legacy Education Alliance.

Profitability

This table compares Healthcare Services Group and Legacy Education Alliance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Healthcare Services Group	2.20%	12.23%	7.52%
Legacy Education Alliance	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.0% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Healthcare Services Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 28.1% of Legacy Education Alliance shares are owned 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.

Summary

Healthcare Services Group beats Legacy Education Alliance on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Healthcare Services Group

Healthcare Services Group, Inc. provides management, administrative, and operating services to the housekeeping, laundry, linen, facility maintenance, and dietary service departments of nursing homes, retirement complexes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals in the United States. It operates through two segments, Housekeeping and Dietary. The Housekeeping segment engages in the cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing of resident rooms and common areas of the customers' facilities, as well as laundering and processing of the bed linens, uniforms, resident personal clothing, and other assorted linen items utilized at the customers' facilities. The Dietary segment provides food purchasing, meal preparation, and professional dietitian services, which include the development of menus that meet the dietary needs of residents; and on-site management and clinical consulting services to facilities. It serves long-term and post-acute care facilities, hospitals, and the healthcare industry through referrals and solicitation of target facilities. The company was incorporated in 1976 and is based in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

About Legacy Education Alliance

Legacy Education Alliance, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides educational training on the topics of personal finance, entrepreneurship, real estate, and financial markets investing strategies and techniques in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company markets its products and services under the Building Wealth with Legacy and Homemade Investor by Tarek El Moussa brands. It provides its programs through various formats and channels, including free workshops, basic trainings, forums, telephone mentoring, one-on-one mentoring, coaching, and e-learning. Legacy Education Alliance, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Cape Coral, Florida.