One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$361.99 our estimate vs market $149.93
Wall Street consensus: $190.75 (-47.3% 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
$149.93
52-week range
$84.88 - $186.78
Market cap
$2.39B
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 acts like a team of specialists for big organizations, mainly helping hospitals and universities improve how they operate and manage their finances. The company generates most of its revenue (the total money earned from sales) by providing expert advice and software to these healthcare and education clients. This matters because these complex sectors constantly face new challenges and often need outside help to run more efficiently.
How the company got here
Huron Consulting Group was started in 2002 by a group of former partners from Arthur Andersen, a large accounting firm that closed after a major scandal. Initially, they focused on helping companies with financial and legal challenges, like investigations and bankruptcies. Over the years, Huron expanded by acquiring other companies, which allowed them to offer a wider range of services, especially in the healthcare and education fields. This series of acquisitions transformed the company from a niche financial advisory firm into a broader management consulting firm that helps organizations improve their performance.
What it actually does
Huron is a professional services firm that helps other organizations solve complex problems and run more efficiently. Think of them as expert advisors that companies and universities hire to get help with things like improving their finances, updating their technology, or managing big organizational changes. They don't sell a physical product, but instead offer their expertise in areas like strategy, operations, and technology to clients in sectors like healthcare, education, and financial services. Essentially, Huron's employees use their specialized knowledge to help clients navigate challenges and improve how they operate.
Healthcare
This is Huron's largest business segment, making up about half of its revenue. They work with hospitals, health systems, and academic medical centers to help them with financial and operational challenges. This includes services like finding ways to reduce costs, improving how they bill and collect payments (a process called revenue cycle management), and using data to improve patient care. The goal is to help these healthcare organizations operate more efficiently and effectively in a complex and regulated industry.
Education
Huron works with colleges, universities, and research institutions on a variety of challenges. This can involve helping them with financial planning, improving student enrollment and success, managing research grants, and updating their technology systems. For example, they might help a university implement a new software system to better manage student data or develop strategies to increase fundraising. This segment is a significant part of Huron's business, helping educational institutions navigate financial pressures and changing student needs.
Commercial
This segment serves a wide range of other industries outside of healthcare and education, including financial services, manufacturing, and the public sector. It is Huron's smallest but fastest-growing business area. The services offered are broad, helping these companies with things like modernizing their technology, improving their business processes, and managing financial or regulatory challenges. For instance, they might advise a bank on new regulations or help a manufacturing company make its supply chain (the network of organizations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer) more efficient.
What management is betting on now
Huron's leadership is focused on continuing to grow its core Healthcare and Education businesses, where it already has a strong market position. A major priority is expanding their digital services, which involves helping clients with technology, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to make better decisions and operate more efficiently. They are also focused on increasing the amount of recurring revenue they earn through managed services, which are ongoing services rather than one-time projects. The company plans to continue making strategic acquisitions of smaller, specialized firms to bring in new capabilities.
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 $361.99 vs current price $149.93
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $190.75 (-47.3% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $361.99 a share — about 141.4% above today's price of $149.93, 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. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
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 $80.72M Interest coverage 12.87x +134% vs HURN Carries about 2.3x 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 $1.91B Interest coverage 2.18x -60% vs HURN Carries about 2.5x less 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)
22.58x
Forward P/E
14.16x
P/B
5.83x
P/S
1.34x
EV/EBITDA
12.61x
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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