Critical Survey: Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ:TRI) vs. Willdan Group (NASDAQ:WLDN)

Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ:TRI) and Willdan Group (NASDAQ:WLDN) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Thomson Reuters and Willdan Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Thomson Reuters	21.22%	15.82%	10.27%
Willdan Group	8.80%	24.51%	13.92%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Thomson Reuters and Willdan Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Thomson Reuters	0	6	11	0	2.65
Willdan Group	0	1	2	1	3.00

Thomson Reuters currently has a consensus target price of $127.42, indicating a potential upside of 4.36%. Willdan Group has a consensus target price of $118.33, indicating a potential upside of 64.63%. Given Willdan Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Willdan Group is more favorable than Thomson Reuters.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Thomson Reuters and Willdan Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Thomson Reuters	$7.48 billion	7.08	$1.50 billion	$3.76	32.47
Willdan Group	$681.55 million	1.61	$52.56 million	$4.26	16.87

Thomson Reuters has higher revenue and earnings than Willdan Group. Willdan Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Thomson Reuters, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

17.3% of Thomson Reuters shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.3% of Willdan Group shares are held by institutional investors. 5.6% of Willdan Group shares 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.

Volatility & Risk

Thomson Reuters has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Willdan Group has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Willdan Group beats Thomson Reuters on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. The Corporates segment provides a suite of content-enabled technology solutions for legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and IT professionals. The Tax & Accounting Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on tax offerings and automating tax workflows to tax, accounting, and audit professionals in accounting firms. The Reuters News segment provides business, financial, and international news to media organizations, professional, and news consumers through news agency and industry events. The Global Print segment offers legal and tax information primarily in print format to legal and tax professionals, governments, law schools, and corporations. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Thomson Reuters Corporation is a subsidiary of The Woodbridge Company Limited.

About Willdan Group

Willdan Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides professional, technical, and consulting services primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Energy, and Engineering and Consulting. The Energy segment offers comprehensive audit and surveys, program design and implementation, master planning, demand reduction, grid optimization, benchmarking analyses, design engineering, construction management, performance contracting, installation, alternative financing, measurement and verification services, and software and data analytics, as well as energy consulting and engineering, turnkey facility and infrastructure projects, and customer support services. The Engineering and Consulting segment provides building and safety, city engineering and code enforcement, development plan review and inspection, disaster recovery, geotechnical and earthquake engineering, planning and surveying, contract staff support, program and construction management, structural engineering, transportation and traffic engineering, and water resources services. This segment also offers district administration, financial consulting, and federal compliance services. It serves public and governmental agencies, including cities, counties, redevelopment agencies, water districts, school districts, and universities; investor and municipal owned energy utilities; state and federal agencies; and commercial and industrial firms, as well as various other special districts and agencies. The company was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Anaheim, California.