H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) & Coursera (NYSE:COUR) Financial Survey

Coursera (NYSE:COUR) and H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Coursera and H&R Block, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coursera	1	4	7	0	2.50
H&R Block	1	2	1	1	2.40

Coursera presently has a consensus price target of $8.36, indicating a potential upside of 68.11%. H&R Block has a consensus price target of $46.67, indicating a potential upside of 6.82%. Given Coursera’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Coursera is more favorable than H&R Block.

Risk & Volatility

Coursera has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, H&R Block has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Coursera and H&R Block’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coursera	-15.39%	-1.72%	-1.07%
H&R Block	18.59%	-214.84%	22.56%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

89.5% of Coursera shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.1% of H&R Block shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.3% of Coursera shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of H&R Block shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Coursera and H&R Block”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coursera	$757.50 million	1.74	-$51.00 million	($0.67)	-7.43
H&R Block	$3.95 billion	1.36	$733.60 million	$5.72	7.64

H&R Block has higher revenue and earnings than Coursera. Coursera is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than H&R Block, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

H&R Block beats Coursera on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coursera

Coursera, Inc. operates an online educational content platform in the United States, Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Consumer, Enterprise, and Degrees. The company offers guided projects, courses, and specializations, as well as online degrees; and certificates for entry-level professional, non-entry level professional, university, and MasterTrack. It offers its products to individuals, enterprise, business, campus, and government. The company was formerly known as Dkandu, Inc. and changed its name to Coursera, Inc. in April 2012. Coursera, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

About H&R Block

H&R Block, Inc. engages in the provision of tax return preparation solutions, financial products and small business solutions. The company was founded by Henry W. Bloch and Richard A. Bloch on January 25, 1955, and is headquartered in Kansas City, MO.