BGSF (NYSE:BGSF) and ExlService (NASDAQ:EXLS) Critical Survey

ExlService (NASDAQ:EXLS) and BGSF (NYSE:BGSF) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.9% of ExlService shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.2% of BGSF shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of ExlService shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of BGSF shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for ExlService and BGSF, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ExlService	0	1	6	0	2.86
BGSF	1	0	0	0	1.00

ExlService currently has a consensus price target of $44.50, suggesting a potential upside of 12.63%. Given ExlService’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe ExlService is more favorable than BGSF.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ExlService and BGSF”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ExlService	$2.24 billion	2.68	$251.02 million	$1.59	24.85
BGSF	$93.31 million	0.50	-$11.43 million	($0.74)	-5.95

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

Risk and Volatility

ExlService has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BGSF has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares ExlService and BGSF’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ExlService	11.17%	30.61%	15.66%
BGSF	-8.99%	-13.69%	-10.60%

Summary

ExlService beats BGSF on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ExlService

ExlService Holdings, Inc. operates as a data analytics, and digital operations and solutions company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Insurance, Healthcare, Analytics, and Emerging Business segments. It also provides digital operations and solutions and analytics-driven services, such as claims processing, premium and benefit administration, agency management, account reconciliation, policy research, underwriting support, new business acquisition, policy servicing, premium audit, surveys, billing and collection, commercial and residential survey, and customer service using digital technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced automation; digital customer acquisition services using a software-as-a-service delivery model through LifePRO and LISS platforms; subrogation services; and Subrosource software platform, an end-to-end subrogation platform. In addition, the company offers health care services related to care management, utilization management, disease management, payment integrity, revenue optimization, and customer engagement. Further, it provides financial planning and analysis, management reporting, forecasting and decision support, data management, regulatory reporting and risk, and compliance services; reservations, customer, and fulfilment services; freight billing, collections, claims management, freight audit, freight scheduling, supply chain management, and revenue assurance services; residential mortgage lending, title verification and validation, retail banking and credit cards, trust verification, commercial banking, and investment management; merchandising, pricing, and demand forecasting; and digital operations and solutions. The company offers predictive and prescriptive analytics in the areas of customer acquisition and lifecycle management. ExlService Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About BGSF

BGSF, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides consulting, managed services, and professional workforce solutions in the United States. It operates in two segments, Property Management and Professional. The Property Management segment offers office and maintenance field talent to various apartment communities and commercial buildings. The Professional segment provides skilled IT professionals in SAP, Workday, Peoplesoft, Hyperion, Oracle, One Stream, cyber, project management, management services, and other IT workforce solutions. This segment also offers finance, accounting, legal, human resource, and related support personnel. It serves its products to fortune 500 companies, and medium and small companies, as well as consulting companies. The company was formerly known as BG Staffing, Inc. and changed its name to BGSF, Inc. in February 2021. BGSF, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Plano, Texas.