Head to Head Analysis: Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) and LSC Communications (OTCMKTS:LKSDQ)

LSC Communications (OTCMKTS:LKSDQ) and Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for LSC Communications and Research Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LSC Communications	0	0	0	0	0.00
Research Solutions	1	0	1	0	2.00

Research Solutions has a consensus target price of $5.00, indicating a potential upside of 60.26%. Given Research Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Research Solutions is more favorable than LSC Communications.

Profitability

This table compares LSC Communications and Research Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LSC Communications	N/A	N/A	N/A
Research Solutions	2.58%	10.32%	2.88%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares LSC Communications and Research Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LSC Communications	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Research Solutions	$49.06 million	2.09	$1.27 million	$0.03	104.00

Research Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than LSC Communications.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

33.6% of Research Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of LSC Communications shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.9% of Research Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Research Solutions beats LSC Communications on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LSC Communications

LSC Communications, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various traditional and digital print, print-related services, and office products in North America, Europe, and Mexico. It operates through Magazines, Catalogs and Logistics; Book; Office Products; Mexico; and Other segments. The Magazines, Catalogs and Logistics segment produces magazines and catalogs, as well as provides logistics solutions to the company and other third parties. This segment also provides other print-related services, including mail services. The Book segment produces books for publishers; and provides supply-chain management, and warehousing and fulfillment services, as well as e-book formatting for book publishers. The Office Products segment manufactures and sells branded and private label products in various categories, such as filing products, envelopes, note-taking products, binder products, and forms. The Mexico segment produces magazines, catalogs, statements, forms, and labels. The Other segment provides directories; and outsourced print procurement and management services. The company serves printed products service retailers, including catalogers and merchandisers; publishers of magazines, books, and directories; and office superstores, office supply wholesalers, independent contract stationers, mass merchandisers, and retailers and e-commerce resellers through the United States Postal Service or foreign postal services, as well as through direct shipment and online retailers. LSC Communications, Inc. was founded in 2016 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. On April 13, 2020, LSC Communications, Inc., along with its affiliates, filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

About Research Solutions

Research Solutions, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides research cloud-based software-as-a-service software platform and related services to corporate, academic, government and individual researchers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It provides Discover platform that facilitates search discovery across virtually all scientific, technical, and medical (STM) articles available, including free basic search solutions and advanced search tools, which include the Resolute.ai and scite.ai products, a tools that allows for searching and identifying relevant research and find insights in other datasets adjacent to STM content, such as clinical trial, patent, life science and medtech regulatory information, competitor and technology landscape insights in addition to searching the customer’s internal datasets. The company also offers Article Galaxy, a solution that allows research organizations to load their entitlements, consisting of subscriptions, discount or token packages, and their existing library of articles. In addition, it provides Manage platform, a references solution that allows users to access the article inside the platform including setting up personal folders or team folders and allows researchers to markup and take notes on the articles in a supported browser on a desktop or tablet. Further, the company’s platform facilitates the sale of published STM content sold as individual articles. The company was formerly known as Derycz Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Research Solutions, Inc. in March 2013. Research Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.