Critical Analysis: Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) vs. Rightscorp (OTCMKTS:RIHT)

Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) and Rightscorp (OTCMKTS:RIHT) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Crawford & Company and Rightscorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crawford & Company	0	0	1	0	3.00
Rightscorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

Crawford & Company presently has a consensus target price of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 26.53%. Given Crawford & Company’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Crawford & Company is more favorable than Rightscorp.

Profitability

This table compares Crawford & Company and Rightscorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crawford & Company	1.37%	24.21%	5.46%
Rightscorp	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

22.5% of Crawford & Company shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of Rightscorp shares are held by institutional investors. 54.3% of Crawford & Company shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Crawford & Company has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rightscorp has a beta of -0.13, suggesting that its stock price is 113% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Crawford & Company and Rightscorp”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crawford & Company	$1.31 billion	0.41	$19.63 million	$0.36	30.74
Rightscorp	$290,000.00	3.23	-$670,000.00	N/A	N/A

Crawford & Company has higher revenue and earnings than Rightscorp.

Summary

Crawford & Company beats Rightscorp on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crawford & Company

Crawford & Company provides claims management and outsourcing solutions to the risk management and insurance industry, and self-insured entities. The company's Crawford Claims Solutions segment offers claims management services related to property, casualty, and catastrophe losses caused by physical damage to commercial and residential real properties, and personal properties, as well as marine losses. It also offers services in the areas of field investigation, catastrophe, evaluation, and resolution of property and casualty insurance claims; and various on-demand inspection, verification, and other task specific field services for businesses and consumers through a mobile platform. Its Crawford TPA Solutions segment provides claims and risk management services; desktop claim adjusting and claims evaluation services; initial loss reporting services for claimants; loss mitigation services, such as medical bill review and case management, and vocational rehabilitation services; and risk management information services, as well as administers trust funds established to pay claims. It offers services for workers' compensation, auto and liability, disability absence and medical management, and accident and health markets. The company's Crawford Specialty Solutions segment offers claims management services related to large and complex losses in various industries, such as commercial property, aviation, forensic accounting, marine and transportation, retail, building and construction, cyber, and energy. It also provides a customer-centric solution for various loss types comprising high-frequency and low-complexity claims, and large complex repairs; and outsourced contractor management services to personal and commercial insurance carriers, and consumer markets. The company operates in the United States, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. Crawford & Company was founded in 1941 and is based in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.

About Rightscorp

Rightscorp, Inc. operates as a technology company that has a patent-pending proprietary method for collecting payments from illegal downloaders of copyrighted content through notifications sent to their Internet service providers (ISP’s). The company’s technology system monitors peer-to-peer file sharing networks and sends through email to ISP’s notifications of copyright infringement by the ISPs’ customers with date, time, copyright title, and other specific technology identifiers worldwide. It primarily serves copyright holders. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.