Analyzing Public Policy (PPHC) & The Competition

Public Policy (NASDAQ:PPHC) is one of 203 public companies in the “Professional Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Public Policy to similar companies based on the strength of its profitability, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Public Policy and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Public Policy	1	1	2	0	2.25
Public Policy Competitors	1591	6481	9184	433	2.48

Public Policy currently has a consensus target price of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 51.80%. As a group, “Professional Services” companies have a potential upside of 27.98%. Given Public Policy’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Public Policy is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Public Policy and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Public Policy	-18.85%	-0.26%	-0.11%
Public Policy Competitors	-0.13%	35.53%	4.39%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

57.3% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 14.6% of Public Policy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.2% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Public Policy and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Public Policy	$186.54 million	-$39.00 million	101.81
Public Policy Competitors	$3.29 billion	$228.38 million	37.10

Public Policy’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Public Policy. Public Policy is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Public Policy pays an annual dividend of $0.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Public Policy pays out 209.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Professional Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out -163.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Public Policy lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

Public Policy competitors beat Public Policy on 12 of the 14 factors compared.

About Public Policy

Public Policy Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: PPHC) is a government relations and public affairs company that provides strategic advisory services to organizations seeking to understand and influence public policy. Through its portfolio of specialized firms, the company works with corporations, trade associations, nonprofit organizations and other institutions on legislative, regulatory and reputational matters. Its services include federal and state-level lobbying, public affairs strategy, strategic communications, grassroots and coalition campaigns, issue advocacy, public opinion research and stakeholder engagement.