Analyzing Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) & TransUnion (NYSE:TRU)

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) and TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Huron Consulting Group and TransUnion, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Huron Consulting Group	0	1	4	1	3.00
TransUnion	0	6	10	0	2.62

Huron Consulting Group presently has a consensus price target of $184.25, indicating a potential upside of 15.25%. TransUnion has a consensus price target of $94.69, indicating a potential upside of 32.03%. Given TransUnion’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe TransUnion is more favorable than Huron Consulting Group.

Profitability

This table compares Huron Consulting Group and TransUnion’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Huron Consulting Group	6.38%	32.33%	9.29%
TransUnion	15.08%	16.29%	6.67%

Volatility & Risk

Huron Consulting Group has a beta of 0.07, indicating that its share price is 93% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TransUnion has a beta of 1.54, indicating that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Huron Consulting Group and TransUnion”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Huron Consulting Group	$1.70 billion	1.50	$105.04 million	$6.68	23.93
TransUnion	$4.58 billion	3.00	$455.40 million	$3.79	18.92

TransUnion has higher revenue and earnings than Huron Consulting Group. TransUnion is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Huron Consulting Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.9% of Huron Consulting Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Huron Consulting Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of TransUnion shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Huron Consulting Group beats TransUnion on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group Inc., a professional services firm, provides consultancy services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Healthcare, Education, and Commercial. The Healthcare segment provides financial and operational performance improvement consulting services; digital offerings, spanning technology and analytic-related services; software products; organizational transformation services; revenue cycle managed and outsourcing services; financial and capital advisory consulting services; and strategy and innovation consulting services to national and regional health systems, academic and community health systems, federal health system, public, children’s and critical access hospitals, physician practices and medical groups, payors, and long-term care or post-acute providers. The Education segment provides digital solutions, spanning technology, and analytic-related services; Huron Research product suite, a software suite designed to facilitate and enhance research administration service delivery and compliance; research-focused consulting and managed services; strategy and operations consulting services for public and private colleges and universities, research institutes, and other education-related organizations. The Commercial segment delivers digital services and software products, and financial advisory services to financial, energy and utilities, professional and business services, life science, consumer products, and industrials and manufacturing industries, as well as public sector and nonprofit organizations. The company was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About TransUnion

TransUnion operates as a global consumer credit reporting agency that provides risk and information solutions. The company operates through U.S. Markets, International, and Consumer Interactive segments. The U.S. Markets segment provides consumer reports, actionable insights, and analytic services to businesses, which uses its services to acquire new customers; assess consumer ability to pay for services; identify cross-selling opportunities; measure and manage debt portfolio risk; collect debt; verify consumer identities; and mitigate fraud risk. This segment serves various industry vertical markets, including financial services, technology, commerce and communications, insurance, media, services and collections, tenant and employment, and public sectors. The International segment offers credit reports, analytics, technology solutions, and other value-added risk management services; consumer services, which help consumers to manage their personal finances; consumer credit reporting, insurance and auto information solutions, and commercial credit information services. It serves customers in financial services, retail credit, insurance, automotive, collections, public sector, and communications industries through direct and indirect channels. The company was formerly known as TransUnion Holding Company, Inc. and changed its name to TransUnion in March 2015. TransUnion was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.