Crawford & Company Stock Upgraded (CRD.A)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its attractive valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Net operating cash flow has increased to -$38.18 million or 23.97% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite an increase in cash flow, CRAWFORD & CO's average is still marginally south of the industry average growth rate of 32.78%.
• CRD.A, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 13.1%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 5.5%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• Current return on equity is lower than its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of weakness within the company. Compared to other companies in the Insurance industry and the overall market, CRAWFORD & CO's return on equity significantly exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• CRAWFORD & CO has exprienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. We feel it is likely to report a decline in earnings in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, CRAWFORD & CO increased its bottom line by earning $0.84 versus $0.53 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 36.9% in earnings ($0.53 versus $0.84).

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Crawford & Company provides claims management solutions to risk management and insurance industry worldwide. It offers field investigation and evaluation of property and casualty insurance claims. The company has a P/E ratio of 4.5, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Crawford has a market cap of $99.3 million and is part of the financial sector and insurance industry. Shares are down 15.2% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

You can view the full Crawford Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.
-- Written by a member of TheStreet RatingsStaff

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