Critical Comparison: ICF International (NASDAQ:ICFI) & CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ)

ICF International (NASDAQ:ICFI) and CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for ICF International and CBIZ, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ICF International	0	2	2	0	2.50
CBIZ	0	7	1	0	2.12

ICF International currently has a consensus target price of $105.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.09%. CBIZ has a consensus target price of $44.50, indicating a potential downside of 19.06%. Given ICF International’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe ICF International is more favorable than CBIZ.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ICF International and CBIZ”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ICF International	$1.82 billion	0.94	$91.59 million	$4.83	19.75
CBIZ	$2.78 billion	1.07	$115.44 million	$2.45	22.44

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

Risk and Volatility

ICF International has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CBIZ has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.1% of ICF International shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.4% of CBIZ shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of ICF International shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of CBIZ shares are owned 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.

Profitability

This table compares ICF International and CBIZ’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ICF International	4.86%	11.53%	5.73%
CBIZ	5.33%	12.74%	5.19%

Summary

CBIZ beats ICF International on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ICF International

ICF International, Inc. provides management, technology, and policy consulting and implementation services to government and commercial clients in the United States and internationally. The company researches critical policy, industry, stakeholder issues, trends, and behaviors; measures and evaluates results and their impact; and provides strategic planning and advisory services to its clients on how to navigate societal, business, market, business, communication, and technology challenges. It also identifies, defines, and implements policies, plans, programs, and business tools through a range of standard and customized methodologies for its clients' business context; conducts survey research; collects and analyzes various data to understand critical issues and options for its clients; and provides actionable business intelligence, as well as information and data management solutions that allow integrated and purpose-driven data usage. In addition, the company provides solutions to optimize the customer and citizen experience; modernizes IT systems; and cyber security solutions that support the range of cyber security missions and protect IT infrastructures in the face of relentless threats, as well as designs, develops, and implements technology systems and business tools that are key to its clients' mission or business performance. Further, it informs and engages its clients' constituents, customers, and employees through public relations, branding and marketing, multichannel and strategic communications, and reputation issues management. The company serves energy, environment, infrastructure, and disaster recovery; health and social programs; and security and other civilian and commercial markets. The company was formerly known as ICF Consulting Group Holdings, LLC and changed its name to ICF International, Inc. in 2006. ICF International, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

About CBIZ

CBIZ, Inc. provides financial, insurance, and advisory services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Financial Services, Benefits and Insurance Services, and National Practices segments. The Financial Services segment offers accounting and tax, financial advisory, valuation, risk and advisory, and government healthcare consulting services. The Benefits and Insurance Services provides employee benefits consulting, payroll/human capital management, property and casualty insurance, and retirement and investment services. The National Practices segment offers information technology managed networking and hardware, and health care consulting services. The company primarily serves small and medium-sized businesses, as well as individuals, governmental entities, and not-for-profit enterprises. CBIZ, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Independence, Ohio.