One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$412.18 our estimate vs market $168.42
Wall Street consensus: $190.75 (-53.7% lower than our fair-value estimate)
59% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Huron Consulting Group Inc.
HURN · NMS · Industrials · Consulting Services
Current price
$168.42
52-week range
$84.88 - $186.78
Market cap
$2.68B
Balance sheet
Stretched
5.49x Adequate
Net debt $833.14M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 2.8% last year.
- Reward Returns 26.9% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Net debt grew 56.7% over 3 years.
What this company does
Huron Consulting Group Inc.
Huron Consulting Group is a company that provides expert advice and technology solutions to other large organizations, primarily in the healthcare and education industries like hospitals and universities. They help these clients run more efficiently, manage their money better, and handle complex projects. Huron earns its money by charging fees for these specialized consulting services, which matters because these large sectors often have a constant need for outside help to navigate complicated challenges and regulations.
How the company got here
Huron was started in 2002 by a group of consultants from Arthur Andersen, a major accounting firm that had just collapsed. Initially, they focused on giving financial advice to companies facing challenges like bankruptcy or legal issues. The company went public in 2004, meaning its shares became available for anyone to buy on the stock market under the ticker symbol HURN. Over the years, Huron grew by acquiring (buying) other specialized consulting firms to expand its expertise, especially in the healthcare and education industries.
What it actually does
Huron is a professional services firm, which is a company that gets paid to give expert advice and support to other organizations. Think of them as a team of specialists that hospitals, universities, and other businesses hire to help solve complex problems. Their work focuses on helping clients create better strategies for the future, improve their day-to-day operations (the core activities that make the business run), and use technology to become more efficient.
Healthcare
This is Huron's largest business, making up about half of its revenue (the total money it brings in from sales). The clients are hospitals, health systems, and medical schools. Huron's consultants help these organizations with their finances, such as managing the complicated process of getting paid by insurance companies, and finding ways to operate more efficiently to reduce costs. They also provide advice on using technology and data to improve how patients are cared for.
Education
This division works with colleges, universities, and research centers. Many of Huron's consultants in this area are former university leaders, like deans or financial officers, so they have direct experience with the challenges these schools face. They advise schools on how to manage their finances, improve administrative processes, and handle the business side of research grants. The goal is to help these institutions become more financially stable and operate more effectively.
Commercial
This part of the company serves a wide range of other businesses that aren't in healthcare or education. Clients can include banks, energy companies, and manufacturing firms. Huron provides these companies with a variety of services, including financial advice, help with technology projects, and guidance on how to manage risk and comply with government regulations. This segment helps diversify Huron's business so it doesn't rely only on its two main industries.
What management is betting on now
The company's main strategy is to keep growing its core Healthcare and Education businesses, where it is already a market leader. At the same time, they are focused on expanding their Commercial segment to bring in new streams of revenue (money from sales). A major priority is boosting their digital services, which involves using tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics (the science of examining raw data to find trends and draw conclusions) to help all their clients. Management also aims to improve the company's own profitability, often called margin expansion (increasing the portion of each sales dollar that turns into profit).
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q2
$104.75M
FY2024 Q3
$82.84M
FY2024 Q4
$136.99M
FY2025 Q1
$-108.68M
FY2025 Q2
$78.00M
FY2025 Q3
$89.80M
FY2025 Q4
$123.83M
FY2026 Q1
$-167.85M
Revenue
$451.77M
Net income
$23.25M
Diluted EPS
1.34
Operating cash flow
$-162.17M
Free cash flow
$-167.85M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$441.96M
Net income
$30.65M
Diluted EPS
1.71
Operating cash flow
$126.41M
Free cash flow
$123.83M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$441.28M
Net income
$30.42M
Diluted EPS
1.71
Operating cash flow
$93.77M
Free cash flow
$89.80M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$411.75M
Net income
$19.43M
Diluted EPS
1.09
Operating cash flow
$80.05M
Free cash flow
$78.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$404.14M
Net income
$24.54M
Diluted EPS
1.33
Operating cash flow
$-106.83M
Free cash flow
$-108.68M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$399.31M
Net income
$33.99M
Diluted EPS
1.82
Operating cash flow
$139.62M
Free cash flow
$136.99M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$378.09M
Net income
$27.15M
Diluted EPS
1.47
Operating cash flow
$85.21M
Free cash flow
$82.84M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$381.02M
Net income
$37.48M
Diluted EPS
2.03
Operating cash flow
$107.22M
Free cash flow
$104.75M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $412.18 vs current price $168.42
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $190.75 (-53.7% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $412.18 a share — about 144.7% above today's price of $168.42, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $833.1M. Interest coverage 5.5x.
Net debt
$833.14M
Interest coverage
5.49x
Huron Consulting Group Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 5.5 times over.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
HURN
BASELINE
Huron Consulting Group Inc.
Total debt $865.16M Interest coverage 5.49x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $1.27B Interest coverage 19.37x +253% vs HURN Carries about 3.5x more debt cushion than HURN.
Total debt $564.79M Interest coverage 4.72x -14% vs HURN Has roughly the same debt cushion as HURN.
Total debt $303.65M Interest coverage 15.51x +183% vs HURN Carries about 2.8x more debt cushion than HURN.
Total debt $1.73B Interest coverage 6.28x +14% vs HURN Has roughly the same debt cushion as HURN.
Total debt $3.33B Interest coverage 9.38x +71% vs HURN Carries about 1.7x more debt cushion than HURN.
What you should know
The case for and against HURN
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 2.8% last year.
-
Returns 26.9% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 56.7% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
25.36x
Forward P/E
15.90x
P/B
6.55x
P/S
1.51x
EV/EBITDA
13.74x
PEG ratio
1.47x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
32.7%
Operating margin
11.7%
Net margin
6.5%
ROE
26.9%
ROA
8.6%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
2.25x
Current ratio
1.71x
Quick ratio
1.58x
Total debt
$865.16M
Total cash
$32.02M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.75B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
16.4%
EPS TTM
6.64
EPS 5Y CAGR
17.1%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$138.05M
Free CF TTM
$182.96M
FCF margin
10.5%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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