Financial Contrast: Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) & Itex (OTCMKTS:ITEX)

Itex (OTCMKTS:ITEX) and Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

Itex has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crawford & Company has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Itex and Crawford & Company’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Itex	N/A	N/A	N/A
Crawford & Company	1.50%	26.21%	5.74%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Itex and Crawford & Company, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Itex	0	0	0	0	0.00
Crawford & Company	0	0	1	0	3.00

Crawford & Company has a consensus price target of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 36.32%. Given Crawford & Company’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Crawford & Company is more favorable than Itex.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Itex and Crawford & Company”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Itex	$5.44 million	0.92	$500,000.00	N/A	N/A
Crawford & Company	$1.31 billion	0.38	$19.63 million	$0.39	26.33

Crawford & Company has higher revenue and earnings than Itex.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

22.6% of Crawford & Company shares are held by institutional investors. 32.0% of Itex shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 54.3% of Crawford & Company shares are held 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.

Dividends

Itex pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.4%. Crawford & Company pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Crawford & Company pays out 76.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Crawford & Company beats Itex on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Itex

ITEX Corporation operates a marketplace in which products and services are exchanged by marketplace members without exchanging cash in the United States. The company’s marketplace provides a forum for members to purchase from and sell their products and services to other members using ITEX dollars instead of United States dollars. It also administers the marketplace, as well as provides record-keeping and payment transaction processing services. In addition, the company services its member businesses through its independent licensed brokers and franchise network. ITEX Corporation was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.

About Crawford & Company

Crawford & Company provides claims management and outsourcing solutions to the risk management and insurance industry, and self-insured entities. The company's Crawford Claims Solutions segment offers claims management services related to property, casualty, and catastrophe losses caused by physical damage to commercial and residential real properties, and personal properties, as well as marine losses. It also offers services in the areas of field investigation, catastrophe, evaluation, and resolution of property and casualty insurance claims; and various on-demand inspection, verification, and other task specific field services for businesses and consumers through a mobile platform. Its Crawford TPA Solutions segment provides claims and risk management services; desktop claim adjusting and claims evaluation services; initial loss reporting services for claimants; loss mitigation services, such as medical bill review and case management, and vocational rehabilitation services; and risk management information services, as well as administers trust funds established to pay claims. It offers services for workers' compensation, auto and liability, disability absence and medical management, and accident and health markets. The company's Crawford Specialty Solutions segment offers claims management services related to large and complex losses in various industries, such as commercial property, aviation, forensic accounting, marine and transportation, retail, building and construction, cyber, and energy. It also provides a customer-centric solution for various loss types comprising high-frequency and low-complexity claims, and large complex repairs; and outsourced contractor management services to personal and commercial insurance carriers, and consumer markets. The company operates in the United States, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. Crawford & Company was founded in 1941 and is based in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.