Forrester Research (FORR) and The Competition Critical Analysis

Forrester Research (NASDAQ:FORR) is one of 205 publicly-traded companies in the “Professional Services” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Forrester Research to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Forrester Research and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Forrester Research	$381.04 million	-$119.36 million	-5.12
Forrester Research Competitors	$3.35 billion	$227.10 million	30.70

Forrester Research’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Forrester Research. Forrester Research is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility and Risk

Forrester Research has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Forrester Research’s competitors have a beta of 0.95, suggesting that their average stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Forrester Research and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Forrester Research	1	1	0	0	1.50
Forrester Research Competitors	1488	6344	9095	481	2.49

As a group, “Professional Services” companies have a potential upside of 37.29%. Given Forrester Research’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Forrester Research has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Forrester Research and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Forrester Research	-11.17%	6.09%	1.94%
Forrester Research Competitors	1.89%	22.32%	4.74%

Dividends

Forrester Research pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. Forrester Research pays out -35.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Professional Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.6% and pay out -158.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.2% of Forrester Research shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.6% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 40.7% of Forrester Research shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.0% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Forrester Research competitors beat Forrester Research on 13 of the 15 factors compared.

Forrester Research Company Profile

Forrester Research, Inc. operates as an independent research and advisory company in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Research, Consulting, and Events. The Research segment primary subscription research services include Forrester Decisions, Forrester Research, and SiriusDecisions Research, which are designed to provide business and technology leaders with a proven path to growth through customer obsession. This segment delivers content, such as future trends, predictions, and market forecasts; deep consumer and business buyer data and insights; curated best practice models and tools to run business functions; operational and performance benchmarking data; and technology and service market landscapes and vendor evaluations. The Consulting segment provides consulting projects, include conducting maturity assessments, prioritizing best practices, developing strategies, building business cases, selecting technology vendors, structuring organizations, developing content marketing strategies and collateral, and sales tools; and advisory services. The Events segment hosts events related to business-to-business marketing, sales and product leadership, customer experience, security and risk, new technology and innovation, and data strategies and insights. The company sells its products and services through direct sales force in various locations. Forrester Research, Inc. was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.