Charles River Associates (CRAI) and Its Peers Head-To-Head Contrast

Charles River Associates (NASDAQ:CRAI) is one of 204 publicly-traded companies in the “Professional Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Charles River Associates to related companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Charles River Associates and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Charles River Associates	0	1	1	0	2.50
Charles River Associates Competitors	1618	6501	9179	434	2.48

Charles River Associates currently has a consensus price target of $245.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.95%. As a group, “Professional Services” companies have a potential upside of 27.63%. Given Charles River Associates’ peers higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Charles River Associates has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Charles River Associates and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Charles River Associates	$751.58 million	$54.78 million	24.97
Charles River Associates Competitors	$3.30 billion	$228.40 million	32.52

Charles River Associates’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Charles River Associates. Charles River Associates is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

Charles River Associates has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Charles River Associates’ peers have a beta of 0.96, meaning that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

84.1% of Charles River Associates shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.4% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 4.5% of Charles River Associates shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.1% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Charles River Associates	6.28%	27.73%	8.23%
Charles River Associates Competitors	0.35%	36.82%	4.45%

Dividends

Charles River Associates pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Charles River Associates pays out 28.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Professional Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out -162.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Charles River Associates has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years. Charles River Associates lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

Charles River Associates peers beat Charles River Associates on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

About Charles River Associates

Charles River Associates (CRA) is a global consulting firm that provides economic, financial and management consulting services. Founded in 1965 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company works with businesses, law firms and government agencies on complex commercial, regulatory and legal matters. CRA’s services include economic and financial analysis for litigation and regulatory proceedings, competition and antitrust consulting, intellectual property analysis, and advice on business strategy and operations.