Analyzing Franklin Covey (NYSE:FC) & ATIF (NASDAQ:ZBAI)

ATIF (NASDAQ:ZBAI) and Franklin Covey (NYSE:FC) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for ATIF and Franklin Covey, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ATIF	1	0	0	0	1.00
Franklin Covey	1	0	2	0	2.33

Franklin Covey has a consensus target price of $24.50, suggesting a potential upside of 43.62%. Given Franklin Covey’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Franklin Covey is more favorable than ATIF.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

69.9% of Franklin Covey shares are held by institutional investors. 32.2% of ATIF shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.2% of Franklin Covey shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ATIF	N/A	-59.44%	-54.65%
Franklin Covey	1.15%	9.54%	2.95%

Risk & Volatility

ATIF has a beta of -0.28, suggesting that its share price is 128% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin Covey has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ATIF and Franklin Covey”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ATIF	$1.20 million	6.23	-$4.60 million	($7.19)	-1.08
Franklin Covey	$267.07 million	0.77	$3.07 million	$0.24	71.08

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

Summary

Franklin Covey beats ATIF on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ATIF

ATIF Holdings Ltd. engages in the provision of financial consulting services. It is also involved in merger and acquisition business advisory, post-listing compliance, management support, and related services. The company was founded on January 5, 2015 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, CA.

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.