Critical Review: Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock (NASDAQ:PHLT) and Flight Centre Travel Group (OTCMKTS:FGETF)

Flight Centre Travel Group (OTCMKTS:FGETF) and Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock (NASDAQ:PHLT) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Flight Centre Travel Group and Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flight Centre Travel Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock	0	0	0	1	4.00

Volatility & Risk

Flight Centre Travel Group has a beta of -0.28, meaning that its stock price is 128% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock has a beta of -0.11, meaning that its stock price is 111% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Flight Centre Travel Group and Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flight Centre Travel Group	$1.78 billion	1.01	$91.70 million	N/A	N/A
Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock	$122.98 million	1.64	-$7.52 million	($0.13)	-19.85

Flight Centre Travel Group has higher revenue and earnings than Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

77.2% of Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock shares are held by institutional investors. 9.2% of Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Flight Centre Travel Group and Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flight Centre Travel Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock	-6.74%	-10.19%	-7.83%

Summary

Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock beats Flight Centre Travel Group on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Flight Centre Travel Group

Flight Centre Travel Group Limited provides travel retailing services for the leisure and corporate sectors in Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and internationally. The company offers leisure travel services for the niche sectors, as well as mass, youth, premium, and cruise markets; and corporate travel services for organizations of various sizes across industries, as well as supplies products to its national and international network, or travel retail outlets. It also provides tour operations, hotel management, and destination management services. In addition, the company offers other travel related services, including foreign currency exchange and travel academies; recruitment marketing and bike retailing; and employee benefit services. It provides its services primarily under the Flight Centre brand, as well as other travel brands, such as Student Flights, Travel Associates, Liberty Travel, Infinity Holidays, GOGO Vacations, FCm Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveller, Stage and Screen, and cievents. The company was formerly known as Flight Centre Limited and changed its name to Flight Centre Travel Group Limited in November 2013. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in South Brisbane, Australia.

About Performant Healthcare, Inc. – Common Stock

Performant Healthcare, Inc. engages in the provision of technology-enabled audit, recovery, customer care, and related analytics services. Its services help identify improper payments, and in some markets, restructure and recover delinquent or defaulted assets and improper payments for both government and private clients. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Plantation, FL.