Analyzing Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN) & TrueBlue (NYSE:TBI)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Atlantic International and TrueBlue, as provided by MarketBeat.

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

TrueBlue has a consensus target price of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 81.56%. Given TrueBlue’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe TrueBlue is more favorable than Atlantic International.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atlantic International	$80,000.00	1,448.08	-$5.63 million	($8.24)	-0.28
TrueBlue	$1.91 billion	0.10	-$14.17 million	($3.84)	-1.65

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

Profitability

This table compares Atlantic International and TrueBlue’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%
TrueBlue	-6.97%	-2.69%	-1.32%

Volatility & Risk

Atlantic International has a beta of 1.76, indicating that its stock price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TrueBlue has a beta of 1.42, indicating that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.2% of TrueBlue shares are held by institutional investors. 22.3% of Atlantic International shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of TrueBlue shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

TrueBlue beats Atlantic International on 8 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 TrueBlue

TrueBlue, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides specialized workforce solutions in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Puerto Rico. It operates through three segments: PeopleReady, PeopleManagement, and PeopleScout. The company PeopleReady segment provides general, industrial, and skilled trade contingent staffing services for construction, transportation, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and renewable energy industries. The PeopleManagement segment offers contingent, on-site industrial staffing, and commercial driver services, which includes on-site management and recruitment for the contingent industrial workforce of manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution facilities; and recruitment and management of contingent and dedicated commercial drivers to the transportation and distribution industries under the Staff Management, SIMOS Insourcing Solutions, and Centerline Drivers brands. The company PeopleScout segment provides recruitment process outsourcing, talent advisory services, and managed service provider solutions including sourcing, screening, hiring, and onboarding services; operates Affinix, a technology platform for sourcing, screening, and delivering a permanent workforce to its clients; talent advisory services, such as employer branding, recruitment marketing, talent insights, diversity, equity and inclusion consulting, candidate assessment, and talent acquisition strategy consulting services; and contingent labor programs including vendor selection, performance management, compliance monitoring, and risk management. TrueBlue, Inc. was formerly known as Labor Ready, Inc. and changed its name to TrueBlue, Inc. in December 2007. The company was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington.