Financial Analysis: Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) and Franklin Covey (NYSE:FC)

Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) and Franklin Covey (NYSE:FC) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Skillsoft has a beta of 2.41, indicating that its share price is 141% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin Covey has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Skillsoft and Franklin Covey, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Skillsoft	1	2	0	0	1.67
Franklin Covey	1	1	2	0	2.25

Franklin Covey has a consensus price target of $27.50, indicating a potential upside of 58.31%. Given Franklin Covey’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Franklin Covey is more favorable than Skillsoft.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Skillsoft and Franklin Covey”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Skillsoft	$505.09 million	0.08	-$139.82 million	($18.53)	-0.25
Franklin Covey	$267.07 million	0.73	$3.07 million	$0.17	102.18

Franklin Covey has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Skillsoft. Skillsoft is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Franklin Covey, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Skillsoft and Franklin Covey’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Skillsoft	-36.13%	-74.19%	4.10%
Franklin Covey	0.83%	17.37%	4.04%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.0% of Skillsoft shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.9% of Franklin Covey shares are held by institutional investors. 16.2% of Skillsoft shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.2% of Franklin Covey shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Franklin Covey beats Skillsoft on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Skillsoft

Skillsoft Corp. provides content and platform and instructor-led training services in the United States and internationally. The company's Content & Platform segment engages in the sale, marketing, and delivery of its content learning solutions in areas, such as leadership and business, technology and developer, and compliance comprising individualized coaching, as well as technical skill areas. This segment also offers Percipio, an AI-driven online learning platform that delivers a learning experience through SaaS solutions. Its Instructor-Led Training segment provides training solutions, including information technology and business skills for corporations and their employees by guiding its customers throughout their lifelong technology learning journey by offering relevant and up-to-date skills training through instructor-led and self-paced, vendor certified, and other proprietary offerings. The company markets and sells their offerings to businesses of many sizes, government agencies, educational institutions, and resellers. Skillsoft Corp. is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

About Franklin Covey

Franklin Covey Co. provides training and consulting services in the areas of execution, sales performance, productivity, customer loyalty, and educational improvement for organizations and individuals worldwide. The company operates through Direct Offices, International Licensees, and Education Practice segments. It also provides a suite of individual-effectiveness and leadership-development training and products. In addition, the company operates Strive platform, a learning deployment platform; Impact platform that helps automate implementation of learning initiatives; All Access Pass, a subscription platform that enables improved deployment of content, services, technology, and metrics to deliver behavioral impact at scale; and Leader in Me, which provides access to digital versions of student leadership guides, leadership lessons, illustrated leadership stories, and other resources. Franklin Covey Co. was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.