Charles River Associates (NASDAQ:CRAI) versus Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) Head-To-Head Review

Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) and Charles River Associates (NASDAQ:CRAI) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Research Solutions and Charles River Associates, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Research Solutions	0	2	3	0	2.60
Charles River Associates	0	1	1	0	2.50

Research Solutions currently has a consensus target price of $3.83, indicating a potential upside of 88.83%. Charles River Associates has a consensus target price of $245.00, indicating a potential upside of 37.98%. Given Research Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Research Solutions is more favorable than Charles River Associates.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

33.6% of Research Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.1% of Charles River Associates shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of Research Solutions shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.5% of Charles River Associates shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Research Solutions and Charles River Associates”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Research Solutions	$48.31 million	1.42	$2.82 million	$0.09	22.56
Charles River Associates	$751.58 million	1.48	$54.78 million	$7.51	23.64

Charles River Associates has higher revenue and earnings than Research Solutions. Research Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Charles River Associates, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Research Solutions and Charles River Associates’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Research Solutions	5.84%	15.55%	6.22%
Charles River Associates	6.20%	27.31%	8.36%

Risk and Volatility

Research Solutions has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Charles River Associates has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Charles River Associates beats Research Solutions on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Research Solutions

Research Solutions, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides research cloud-based software-as-a-service software platform and related services to corporate, academic, government and individual researchers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It provides Discover platform that facilitates search discovery across virtually all scientific, technical, and medical (STM) articles available, including free basic search solutions and advanced search tools, which include the Resolute.ai and scite.ai products, a tools that allows for searching and identifying relevant research and find insights in other datasets adjacent to STM content, such as clinical trial, patent, life science and medtech regulatory information, competitor and technology landscape insights in addition to searching the customer’s internal datasets. The company also offers Article Galaxy, a solution that allows research organizations to load their entitlements, consisting of subscriptions, discount or token packages, and their existing library of articles. In addition, it provides Manage platform, a references solution that allows users to access the article inside the platform including setting up personal folders or team folders and allows researchers to markup and take notes on the articles in a supported browser on a desktop or tablet. Further, the company’s platform facilitates the sale of published STM content sold as individual articles. The company was formerly known as Derycz Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Research Solutions, Inc. in March 2013. Research Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.

About Charles River Associates

CRA International, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides economic, financial, and management consulting services worldwide. It advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings; and guides corporations through business strategy and performance-related issues. The company also offers consulting services, including research and analysis, expert testimony, and support in litigation and regulatory proceedings in the areas of finance, accounting, economics, insurance, and forensic accounting and investigations to corporate clients and attorneys. In addition, it offers management consulting services comprising strategy development, performance improvement, corporate strategy and portfolio analysis, estimation of market demand, environmental, social and corporate governance and sustainability strategy and analysis, design and implementation of auction and bidding, new product pricing strategies, survey and market research, valuation of intellectual property and other assets, assessment of competitors’ actions, and analysis of new sources of supply. The company serves various industries, including communications and media; consumer, health, and wellness products; energy; entertainment and leisure; financial services; healthcare; life sciences; manufacturing and industries; natural resources; retail and distribution; technology; and transportation. CRA International, Inc. was incorporated in 1965 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.