Head-To-Head Survey: Forrester Research (NASDAQ:FORR) & Experian (OTCMKTS:EXPGF)

Experian (OTCMKTS:EXPGF) and Forrester Research (NASDAQ:FORR) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.0% of Experian shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.2% of Forrester Research shares are held by institutional investors. 39.2% of Forrester Research shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Experian pays an annual dividend of $0.38 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Forrester Research pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Experian pays out 44.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Forrester Research pays out 2,666.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Experian and Forrester Research, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Experian	0	0	0	0	N/A
Forrester Research	0	1	0	0	2.00

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Experian and Forrester Research”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Experian	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.84	62.62
Forrester Research	$453.42 million	0.72	$3.05 million	$0.03	572.33

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

Profitability

This table compares Experian and Forrester Research’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Experian	N/A	N/A	N/A
Forrester Research	0.32%	6.52%	2.82%

Summary

Forrester Research beats Experian on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Experian

Experian plc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a technology company in North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in two segments, Business-to-Business and Consumer Services. The company collects, sorts, aggregates, and transforms data from various sources to provide a range of data-driven services. It also owns, create, and develops analytics, predictive tools, sophisticated software, and platforms; credit risk, fraud prevention, identity management, customer service and engagement, account processing, and account management services; data analysis, and research and development services. In addition, the company provides credit education, free access to Experian credit reports and scores, and online educational tools. It serves its customers in financial service, direct-to-consumer, health, retail, automotive, software and professional services, telecoms and utility, insurance, media and technology, and other industries, as well as government and public sectors. The company was formerly known as Experian Group Limited and changed its name to Experian plc in July 2008. Experian plc was founded in 1826 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. operates as an independent research and advisory company in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Research, Consulting, and Events. The Research segment primary subscription research services include Forrester Decisions, Forrester Research, and SiriusDecisions Research, which are designed to provide business and technology leaders with a proven path to growth through customer obsession. This segment delivers content, such as future trends, predictions, and market forecasts; deep consumer and business buyer data and insights; curated best practice models and tools to run business functions; operational and performance benchmarking data; and technology and service market landscapes and vendor evaluations. The Consulting segment provides consulting projects, include conducting maturity assessments, prioritizing best practices, developing strategies, building business cases, selecting technology vendors, structuring organizations, developing content marketing strategies and collateral, and sales tools; and advisory services. The Events segment hosts events related to business-to-business marketing, sales and product leadership, customer experience, security and risk, new technology and innovation, and data strategies and insights. The company sells its products and services through direct sales force in various locations. Forrester Research, Inc. was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.