Performant Financial (NASDAQ:PFMT) vs. Powell Max (NASDAQ:PMAX) Critical Survey

Powell Max (NASDAQ:PMAX) and Performant Financial (NASDAQ:PFMT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Powell Max and Performant Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Powell Max	N/A	N/A	N/A
Performant Financial	-6.74%	-10.19%	-7.83%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Powell Max and Performant Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Powell Max	$46.62 million	0.66	N/A	N/A	N/A
Performant Financial	$120.78 million	0.00	-$7.52 million	($0.10)	N/A

Powell Max has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Performant Financial.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.2% of Performant Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.2% of Performant Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Powell Max and Performant Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Powell Max	0	0	0	0	0.00
Performant Financial	0	0	1	1	3.50

Performant Financial has a consensus target price of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.00%. Given Performant Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Performant Financial is more favorable than Powell Max.

Summary

Performant Financial beats Powell Max on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Powell Max

Powell Max Limited is a financial communications services provider. Powell Max Limited is based in JERSEY CITY, N.J.

About Performant Financial

Performant Financial Corporation provides technology-enabled audit, recovery, and analytics services in the United States. The company identifies improper payments resulting from incorrect coding, procedures that were not medically necessary, incomplete documentation or claims submitted based on outdated fee schedules, and coverage discrepancies; and provides first party call center and other outsourced services. The company also offers Performant Insight that provides various services, such as post- and pre-payment audit of healthcare claims, detection of fraud, waste and abuse of healthcare claims, coordination of benefits, and pharmacy fraud detection services. It offers services to government and commercial healthcare markets. The company was formerly known as DCS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Performant Financial Corporation in 2005. Performant Financial Corporation was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Plantation, Florida.