ExlService (NASDAQ:EXLS) & Kelly Services (NASDAQ:KELYA) Head-To-Head Survey

Kelly Services (NASDAQ:KELYA) and ExlService (NASDAQ:EXLS) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Kelly Services and ExlService”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kelly Services	$4.25 billion	0.13	-$254.10 million	($7.81)	-2.03
ExlService	$2.24 billion	2.39	$251.02 million	$1.59	22.18

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Kelly Services and ExlService, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kelly Services	1	1	1	0	2.00
ExlService	0	1	6	0	2.86

Kelly Services currently has a consensus target price of $20.00, indicating a potential upside of 25.94%. ExlService has a consensus target price of $44.50, indicating a potential upside of 26.21%. Given ExlService’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ExlService is more favorable than Kelly Services.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

76.3% of Kelly Services shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of ExlService shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.4% of Kelly Services shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of ExlService shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Kelly Services and ExlService’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kelly Services	-6.73%	2.69%	1.19%
ExlService	11.17%	30.61%	15.66%

Risk & Volatility

Kelly Services has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ExlService has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ExlService beats Kelly Services on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kelly Services

Kelly Services, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides workforce solutions to various industries. The company operates through five segments: Professional & Industrial; Science, Engineering & Technology; Education; Outsourcing & Consulting; and International. The Professional & Industrial segment delivers staffing, outcome-based, and permanent placement services providing administrative, accounting, and finance; light industrial; contact center staffing; and other workforce solutions. The Science, Engineering & Technology segment offers staffing, outcome-based, and permanent placement services in the areas of science and clinical research, engineering, technology, and telecommunications specialties. The Education segment provides staffing, permanent placement, and executive search services to pre-K-12 school districts and education organizations. The Outsourcing & Consulting segment offers managed service provider, recruitment process outsourcing, payroll process outsourcing, and executive coaching programs to customers on a global basis that includes its RocketPower brand. The International segment provides staffing, recruitment process outsourcing, and permanent placement services. The company serves customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, Switzerland, Portugal, Russia, Italy, rest of Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Kelly Services, Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.

About ExlService

ExlService Holdings, Inc. operates as a data analytics, and digital operations and solutions company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Insurance, Healthcare, Analytics, and Emerging Business segments. It also provides digital operations and solutions and analytics-driven services, such as claims processing, premium and benefit administration, agency management, account reconciliation, policy research, underwriting support, new business acquisition, policy servicing, premium audit, surveys, billing and collection, commercial and residential survey, and customer service using digital technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced automation; digital customer acquisition services using a software-as-a-service delivery model through LifePRO and LISS platforms; subrogation services; and Subrosource software platform, an end-to-end subrogation platform. In addition, the company offers health care services related to care management, utilization management, disease management, payment integrity, revenue optimization, and customer engagement. Further, it provides financial planning and analysis, management reporting, forecasting and decision support, data management, regulatory reporting and risk, and compliance services; reservations, customer, and fulfilment services; freight billing, collections, claims management, freight audit, freight scheduling, supply chain management, and revenue assurance services; residential mortgage lending, title verification and validation, retail banking and credit cards, trust verification, commercial banking, and investment management; merchandising, pricing, and demand forecasting; and digital operations and solutions. The company offers predictive and prescriptive analytics in the areas of customer acquisition and lifecycle management. ExlService Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in New York, New York.