Critical Analysis: KinderCare Learning Companies (KLC) & Its Peers

KinderCare Learning Companies (NYSE:KLC) is one of 36 public companies in the “SCHOOLS” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare KinderCare Learning Companies to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

46.8% of shares of all “SCHOOLS” companies are owned by institutional investors. 5.3% of KinderCare Learning Companies shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.0% of shares of all “SCHOOLS” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for KinderCare Learning Companies and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KinderCare Learning Companies	3	5	1	0	1.78
KinderCare Learning Companies Competitors	380	768	1410	78	2.45

KinderCare Learning Companies presently has a consensus price target of $4.63, suggesting a potential upside of 53.57%. As a group, “SCHOOLS” companies have a potential upside of 20.32%. Given KinderCare Learning Companies’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe KinderCare Learning Companies is more favorable than its peers.

Volatility and Risk

KinderCare Learning Companies has a beta of 2.33, meaning that its stock price is 133% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, KinderCare Learning Companies’ peers have a beta of 0.23, meaning that their average stock price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares KinderCare Learning Companies and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
KinderCare Learning Companies	$2.73 billion	-$112.88 million	-3.17
KinderCare Learning Companies Competitors	$1.02 billion	$62.93 million	15.70

KinderCare Learning Companies has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. KinderCare Learning Companies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares KinderCare Learning Companies and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KinderCare Learning Companies	-4.13%	9.85%	2.28%
KinderCare Learning Companies Competitors	6.94%	4.90%	5.12%

Summary

KinderCare Learning Companies peers beat KinderCare Learning Companies on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

About KinderCare Learning Companies

KinderCare Learning Companies Inc. is a provider of high-quality early childhood education by center capacity. KinderCare Learning Companies Inc. is based in PORTLAND, Ore.