Comparing HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) and Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN)

Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN) and HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Atlantic International and HireQuest’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atlantic International	N/A	-298.20%	-42.32%
HireQuest	4.04%	11.02%	6.69%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Atlantic International and HireQuest, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atlantic International	0	0	0	0	0.00
HireQuest	0	0	2	0	3.00

HireQuest has a consensus price target of $18.50, indicating a potential upside of 40.05%. Given HireQuest’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe HireQuest is more favorable than Atlantic International.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Atlantic International and HireQuest”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atlantic International	$27.89 million	10.45	-$5.63 million	($8.24)	-0.71
HireQuest	$36.28 million	5.10	$6.14 million	$0.11	120.09

HireQuest has higher revenue and earnings than Atlantic International. Atlantic International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HireQuest, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

12.0% of HireQuest shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.3% of Atlantic International shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.9% of HireQuest shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Atlantic International has a beta of 1.86, meaning that its share price is 86% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HireQuest has a beta of 1.03, meaning that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

HireQuest beats Atlantic International on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atlantic International

Atlantic International Corp. engages in the design, development, and manufacture of genetic analysis technologies. Its services include RNA sequencing and DNA sequencing. The company was founded by William C. St. Laurent and Daniel R. Jones in 2013 and is headquartered in Billercia, MA.

About HireQuest

HireQuest, Inc. provides temporary staffing services in the United States. It offers staffing services, including direct-dispatch, executive search, consultant, unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and construction personnel, clerical and administrative personnel, and permanent placement services, as well as commercial and non-CDL drivers, and skilled personnel in the medical and dental industries. The company provides its services under the HireQuest Direct, HireQuest, SNelling, DriverQuest, HireQuest Health, Northbound Executive Search, and MRI trade names. It serves construction, recycling, warehousing, logistics, auctioneering, manufacturing, hospitality, landscaping, and retail industries, as well as dental practices. HireQuest, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Goose Creek, South Carolina.