HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI – Get Free Report) and TaskUs (NASDAQ:TASK – Get Free Report) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and dividends.
Volatility & Risk
HireQuest has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TaskUs has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for HireQuest and TaskUs, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| HireQuest | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.67 |
| TaskUs | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2.12 |
Institutional & Insider Ownership
12.0% of HireQuest shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.6% of TaskUs shares are owned by institutional investors. 42.9% of HireQuest shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 31.9% of TaskUs shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares HireQuest and TaskUs’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| HireQuest | 27.06% | 16.35% | 12.11% |
| TaskUs | 8.75% | 27.02% | 11.58% |
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares HireQuest and TaskUs”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| HireQuest | $30.15 million | 7.76 | $6.33 million | $0.57 | 29.53 |
| TaskUs | $1.18 billion | 0.63 | $102.28 million | $1.16 | 7.02 |
TaskUs has higher revenue and earnings than HireQuest. TaskUs is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HireQuest, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
TaskUs beats HireQuest on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About HireQuest
HireQuest, Inc. provides temporary staffing services in the United States. It offers staffing services, including direct-dispatch, executive search, consultant, unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and construction personnel, clerical and administrative personnel, and permanent placement services, as well as commercial and non-CDL drivers, and skilled personnel in the medical and dental industries. The company provides its services under the HireQuest Direct, HireQuest, SNelling, DriverQuest, HireQuest Health, Northbound Executive Search, and MRI trade names. It serves construction, recycling, warehousing, logistics, auctioneering, manufacturing, hospitality, landscaping, and retail industries, as well as dental practices. HireQuest, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Goose Creek, South Carolina.
About TaskUs
TaskUs, Inc. provides digital outsourcing services for companies in Philippines, the United States, India, and internationally. It offers digital customer experience that consists of omni-channel customer care services primarily delivered through non-voice digital channels; and other solutions, including experience and customer care services for new product or market launches, and customer acquisition solutions. The company also provides trust and safety solutions, such as review and disposition of user and advertiser generated visual, text, and audio content, which include removal or labeling of policy violating, and offensive or misleading content, as well as risk management, compliance, identity management, and fraud services; and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that consist of data labeling, annotation, context relevance, and transcription services for training and tuning machine learning algorithms that enables to develop AI systems. It serves clients in various industry segments comprising e-commerce, FinTech, food delivery and ride sharing, gaming, technology, HealthTech, social media, and streaming media. The company was formerly known as TU TopCo, Inc. and changed its name to TaskUs, Inc. in December 2020. TaskUs, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in New Braunfels, Texas.
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