Reviewing Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) and Aeries Technology (NASDAQ:AERT)

Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ:HURN) and Aeries Technology (NASDAQ:AERT) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

Huron Consulting Group has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aeries Technology has a beta of -0.52, meaning that its stock price is 152% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Huron Consulting Group and Aeries Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Huron Consulting Group	0	0	4	0	3.00
Aeries Technology	0	0	0	0	N/A

Huron Consulting Group presently has a consensus price target of $131.75, indicating a potential upside of 19.96%. Given Huron Consulting Group’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Huron Consulting Group is more favorable than Aeries Technology.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Huron Consulting Group and Aeries Technology”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Huron Consulting Group	$1.46 billion	1.35	$62.48 million	$3.47	31.65
Aeries Technology	N/A	N/A	-$1.53 million	N/A	N/A

Huron Consulting Group has higher revenue and earnings than Aeries Technology.

Profitability

This table compares Huron Consulting Group and Aeries Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Huron Consulting Group	5.46%	20.44%	8.16%
Aeries Technology	N/A	N/A	-18.17%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.9% of Huron Consulting Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.2% of Aeries Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Huron Consulting Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Aeries Technology shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Huron Consulting Group beats Aeries Technology on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group Inc., a professional services firm, provides consultancy services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Healthcare, Education, and Commercial. The Healthcare segment provides financial and operational performance improvement consulting services; digital offerings, spanning technology and analytic-related services; software products; organizational transformation services; revenue cycle managed and outsourcing services; financial and capital advisory consulting services; and strategy and innovation consulting services to national and regional health systems, academic and community health systems, federal health system, public, children’s and critical access hospitals, physician practices and medical groups, payors, and long-term care or post-acute providers. The Education segment provides digital solutions, spanning technology, and analytic-related services; Huron Research product suite, a software suite designed to facilitate and enhance research administration service delivery and compliance; research-focused consulting and managed services; strategy and operations consulting services for public and private colleges and universities, research institutes, and other education-related organizations. The Commercial segment delivers digital services and software products, and financial advisory services to financial, energy and utilities, professional and business services, life science, consumer products, and industrials and manufacturing industries, as well as public sector and nonprofit organizations. The company was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Aeries Technology

Aeries Technology, Inc. operates as a professional services and consulting partner in the United States and internationally. The company offers management consultancy services for private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, including software solutions, product management, IT infrastructure, information and cyber security, ERP and CRM platform management, business process management, and digital transformation services. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Orem, Utah.