SPS Commerce (NASDAQ:SPSC) and Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) Critical Survey

SPS Commerce (NASDAQ:SPSC) and Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SPS Commerce and Crawford & Company”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SPS Commerce	$751.51 million	2.56	$93.34 million	$2.40	21.88
Crawford & Company	$1.31 billion	0.38	$19.63 million	$0.36	28.03

SPS Commerce has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Crawford & Company. SPS Commerce is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crawford & Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for SPS Commerce and Crawford & Company, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SPS Commerce	1	7	2	1	2.27
Crawford & Company	0	0	1	0	3.00

SPS Commerce currently has a consensus price target of $76.45, suggesting a potential upside of 45.63%. Crawford & Company has a consensus price target of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 38.75%. Given SPS Commerce’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe SPS Commerce is more favorable than Crawford & Company.

Volatility and Risk

SPS Commerce has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crawford & Company has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.0% of SPS Commerce shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.6% of Crawford & Company shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of SPS Commerce shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 54.3% of Crawford & Company shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SPS Commerce	11.92%	12.43%	10.37%
Crawford & Company	1.37%	24.21%	5.46%

Summary

SPS Commerce beats Crawford & Company on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SPS Commerce

SPS Commerce, Inc. provides cloud-based supply chain management solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers solutions through the SPS Commerce, a cloud-based platform that enhances the way retailers, grocers, suppliers, distributors, and logistics firms manage and fulfill omnichannel orders, optimize sell-through performance, and automate new trading relationships. The company also provides Fulfillment, an electronic data interchange solution that scales as a business grows, where companies use a single system to manage orders and logistics from various sales channels, including wholesale, eCommerce, and marketplaces; and Analytics product that enables organizations to enhance visibility into how products are selling through a single connection across various sales channels, including wholesale, eCommerce, and marketplaces, as well as enhances access and usage of sales and inventory data through a combination of analytics applications, network of connections, and industry-leading expertise. In addition, it offers various complimentary products, such as assortment product, which simplifies the communication of robust, accurate item data by automatically translating item attributes, and hierarchies; and community product that allows organizations to accelerate digitization of their supply chain and improve collaboration with suppliers through change management and onboarding programs. The company was formerly known as St. Paul Software, Inc. and changed its name to SPS Commerce, Inc. in May 2001. SPS Commerce, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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.