Analyzing Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) & Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE:BR)

Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) and Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE:BR) are both industrial products companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

Research Solutions has a beta of 0.54, indicating that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Broadridge Financial Solutions has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Research Solutions and Broadridge Financial Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Research Solutions	0	0	2	0	3.00
Broadridge Financial Solutions	0	5	2	0	2.29

Research Solutions currently has a consensus target price of $5.50, indicating a potential upside of 83.95%. Broadridge Financial Solutions has a consensus target price of $239.17, indicating a potential downside of 2.23%. Given Research Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Research Solutions is more favorable than Broadridge Financial Solutions.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Research Solutions and Broadridge Financial Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Research Solutions	$48.21 million	2.02	-$3.79 million	($0.15)	-19.93
Broadridge Financial Solutions	$6.68 billion	4.28	$698.10 million	$6.39	38.28

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

33.6% of Research Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.0% of Broadridge Financial Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.9% of Research Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Broadridge Financial Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Research Solutions and Broadridge Financial Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Research Solutions	-8.41%	-6.59%	-1.96%
Broadridge Financial Solutions	11.36%	44.40%	12.04%

Summary

Broadridge Financial Solutions beats Research Solutions on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Research Solutions

Research Solutions, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides research cloud-based software-as-a-service software platform and related services to corporate, academic, government and individual researchers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It provides Discover platform that facilitates search discovery across virtually all scientific, technical, and medical (STM) articles available, including free basic search solutions and advanced search tools, which include the Resolute.ai and scite.ai products, a tools that allows for searching and identifying relevant research and find insights in other datasets adjacent to STM content, such as clinical trial, patent, life science and medtech regulatory information, competitor and technology landscape insights in addition to searching the customer’s internal datasets. The company also offers Article Galaxy, a solution that allows research organizations to load their entitlements, consisting of subscriptions, discount or token packages, and their existing library of articles. In addition, it provides Manage platform, a references solution that allows users to access the article inside the platform including setting up personal folders or team folders and allows researchers to markup and take notes on the articles in a supported browser on a desktop or tablet. Further, the company’s platform facilitates the sale of published STM content sold as individual articles. The company was formerly known as Derycz Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Research Solutions, Inc. in March 2013. Research Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.

About Broadridge Financial Solutions

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for the financial services industry. The company's Investor Communication Solutions segment processes and distributes proxy materials to investors in equity securities and mutual funds, as well as facilitates related vote processing services; and distributes regulatory reports, class action, and corporate action/reorganization event information, as well as tax reporting solutions. It also offers ProxyEdge, an electronic proxy delivery and voting solution; data-driven solutions and an end-to-end platform for content management, composition, and omni-channel distribution of regulatory, marketing, and transactional information, as well as mutual fund trade processing services; solutions for public corporations and mutual funds; data and analytics solutions; SEC filing and capital markets transaction services; registrar, stock transfer, and record-keeping services; and omni-channel customer communications solutions, as well as operates Broadridge Communications Cloud platform that creates, delivers, and manages communications and customer engagement activities. Its Global Technology and Operations segment provides solutions that automate the front-to-back transaction lifecycle of equity, mutual fund, fixed income, foreign exchange and exchange-traded derivatives, order capture and execution, trade confirmation, margin, cash management, clearing and settlement, reference data management, reconciliations, securities financing and collateral management, asset servicing, compliance and regulatory reporting, portfolio accounting, and custody-related services. This segment also offers business process outsourcing services; technology solutions, such portfolio management, compliance, fee billing, and operational support solutions; and capital market and wealth and investment management solutions. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Lake Success, New York.