Critical Contrast: Where Food Comes From (NASDAQ:WFCF) versus Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN)

Where Food Comes From (NASDAQ:WFCF) and Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Where Food Comes From and Huron Consulting Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Where Food Comes From	5.78%	15.39%	10.24%
Huron Consulting Group	6.38%	32.33%	9.29%

Risk and Volatility

Where Food Comes From has a beta of 0.15, indicating that its stock price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Huron Consulting Group has a beta of 0.09, indicating that its stock price is 91% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Where Food Comes From and Huron Consulting Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Where Food Comes From	0	1	0	0	2.00
Huron Consulting Group	0	2	4	0	2.67

Huron Consulting Group has a consensus target price of $184.25, suggesting a potential upside of 15.08%. Given Huron Consulting Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Huron Consulting Group is more favorable than Where Food Comes From.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Where Food Comes From and Huron Consulting Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Where Food Comes From	$24.89 million	2.55	$1.54 million	$0.28	45.57
Huron Consulting Group	$1.70 billion	1.50	$105.04 million	$6.68	23.97

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

18.8% of Where Food Comes From shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.9% of Huron Consulting Group shares are held by institutional investors. 53.5% of Where Food Comes From shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Huron Consulting Group 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.

Summary

Huron Consulting Group beats Where Food Comes From on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Where Food Comes From

Where Food Comes From, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a third-party food verification company in North America. The company operates through Verification and Certification, and Professional Services segments. It conducts on-site and desk audits to verify that claims being made about livestock, food, other specialty crops, and agricultural and aquaculture products are accurate, as well as offers Where Food Comes From Source Verified retail and restaurant labeling program, which connects consumers directly to the source of the food they purchase through product labeling, and web-based information sharing and education. It also offers professional services and technology solutions; verification solutions; and consulting services, as well as sells hardware. The company serves beef and pork packers, organic producers and processors, and specialty retail chains. The company was formerly known as Integrated Management Information, Inc. and changed its name to Where Food Comes From, Inc. in December 2012. Where Food Comes From, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is based in Castle Rock, Colorado.

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.