Contrasting Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) and Issuer Direct (NYSE:ISDR)

Issuer Direct (NYSE:ISDR) and Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, risk, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Issuer Direct and Exponent, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Issuer Direct	0	0	0	0	0.00
Exponent	0	0	1	0	3.00

Exponent has a consensus target price of $120.00, indicating a potential upside of 46.85%. Given Exponent’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Exponent is more favorable than Issuer Direct.

Risk and Volatility

Issuer Direct has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exponent has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Issuer Direct and Exponent”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Issuer Direct	$33.38 million	0.00	$770,000.00	($0.35)	N/A
Exponent	$558.51 million	7.44	$109.00 million	$2.12	38.55

Exponent has higher revenue and earnings than Issuer Direct. Issuer Direct is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Exponent, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Issuer Direct and Exponent’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Issuer Direct	-4.54%	5.03%	2.80%
Exponent	19.52%	27.27%	15.24%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

50.0% of Issuer Direct shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Exponent shares are owned by institutional investors. 26.9% of Issuer Direct shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Exponent shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Exponent beats Issuer Direct on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Issuer Direct

Issuer Direct Corporation operates as a communications and compliance company, provides solutions for both public relations and investor relations professionals in the United States and internationally. The company provides press release distribution, media databases, media monitoring, and newsrooms through media advantage platform; ACCESSWIRE, a news dissemination and media outreach service; and Webcaster Platform, a cloud-based webcast, webinar, and virtual meeting platform that delivers live and on-demand streaming of events to audiences of various sizes, as well as allows customers to create, produce, and deliver events. It also offers professional conference and events software, a mobile app that offers organizers, issuers, and investors to register, request, and approve one-on-one meetings, as well as manage schedules, perform event promotion and sponsorship, print attendee badges, and manage lodging; and investor relations content network, a series of data feeds, which include news feeds, stock feeds, fundamentals, regulatory filings, corporate governance, and other components. In addition, the company provides whistleblower hotline, a system that delivers secure notifications and basic incident workflow management processes that align with a company’s corporate governance whistleblower policy; stock transfer module, which offers access to real-time information about their shareholders, stock ledgers, and reports, as well as issues new shares; and proxy module, a real-time voting platform for customers and their shareholders of record. It serves public and private companies, mutual funds, law firms, brokerage firms, investment banks, individuals, and other institutions. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

About Exponent

Exponent, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a science and engineering consulting company in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Engineering and Other Scientific, and Environmental and Health. The Engineering and Other Scientific segment provides services in the areas of biomechanics, biomedical engineering and sciences, buildings and structures, civil engineering, construction consulting, data sciences, electrical engineering and computer science, human factors, materials and corrosion engineering, mechanical engineering, polymer science and materials chemistry, thermal sciences, and vehicle engineering. The Environmental and Health segment offers services in the areas of chemical regulation and food safety, ecological and biological sciences, environmental and earth sciences, and health sciences. The company offers approximately 90 technical disciplines to solve pressing and complicated challenges facing stakeholders. It serves clients in chemical, construction, consumer products, energy, food, beverage and nutrition, government, life sciences, insurance, manufacturing, technology, industrial equipment, transportation, and other sectors of the economy. The company was formerly known as The Failure Group, Inc. and changed its name to Exponent, Inc. in 1998. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.