ITT Educational Services (NYSE:ESI) vs. GP Strategies Corporation (GPX) Head-To-Head Survey

ITT Educational Services (NYSE: ESI) and GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitabiliy, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ITT Educational Services and GP Strategies Corporation’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ITT Educational Services	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.86	0.42
GP Strategies Corporation	$497.25 million	0.91	$38.74 million	$1.22	22.25

GP Strategies Corporation has higher revenue and earnings than ITT Educational Services. ITT Educational Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than GP Strategies Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for ITT Educational Services and GP Strategies Corporation, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ITT Educational Services	2	0	0	0	1.00
GP Strategies Corporation	0	1	0	0	2.00

GP Strategies Corporation has a consensus price target of $27.00, suggesting a potential downside of 0.55%. Given GP Strategies Corporation’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe GP Strategies Corporation is more favorable than ITT Educational Services.

Volatility & Risk

ITT Educational Services has a beta of 1.96, suggesting that its stock price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GP Strategies Corporation has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares ITT Educational Services and GP Strategies Corporation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ITT Educational Services	2.44%	10.57%	2.86%
GP Strategies Corporation	4.13%	12.45%	6.61%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.7% of ITT Educational Services shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.8% of GP Strategies Corporation shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of ITT Educational Services shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 25.7% of GP Strategies Corporation shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

GP Strategies Corporation beats ITT Educational Services on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ITT Educational Services

ITT Educational Services, Inc. is a provider of postsecondary degree programs in the United States. The Company offers master, bachelor and associate degree programs to over 45,000 students, and short-term information technology and business learning solutions for career advancers and other professionals. It has approximately 138 campus locations in over 40 states. It offers online programs to students in all over 50 states. It designs its education programs, after consultation with employers and other constituents, to allow graduates prepare for careers in different fields involving their areas of study. It provides career-oriented education programs under the ITT Technical Institute name and the Daniel Webster College (DWC) name. The ITT Technical Institutes offers over 50 education programs in various fields of study across business, drafting and design, electronics technology, criminal justice, information technology (IT), and Breckinridge School of nursing and health sciences.

About GP Strategies Corporation

GP Strategies Corporation (GP Strategies) is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. The Company operates in five segments: Learning Solutions, Professional & Technical Services, Sandy Training & Marketing, RWD and Energy Services. Its clients include companies and governmental and other commercial customers in a variety of industries. It serves companies in the automotive, steel, oil and gas, power, chemical, electronics and technology, manufacturing, software, financial, retail, healthcare and food and beverage industries, as well as government agencies. On December 31, 2011, GP Strategies Corporation merged with and into its operating subsidiary, General Physics Corporation (General Physics). In April 2014, the Company acquired Effective-People and Effective-Learning companies.