Head to Head Analysis: Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA) & McGraw Hill (NYSE:MH)

by · The Markets Daily

Afya (NASDAQ:AFYAGet Free Report) and McGraw Hill (NYSE:MHGet Free Report) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Afya and McGraw Hill’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net MarginsReturn on EquityReturn on Assets
Afya20.55%17.58%9.09%
McGraw Hill4.38%62.57%8.56%

Volatility and Risk

Afya has a beta of 0.35, indicating that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McGraw Hill has a beta of -0.85, indicating that its stock price is 185% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Afya and McGraw Hill, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell RatingsHold RatingsBuy RatingsStrong Buy RatingsRating Score
Afya15001.83
McGraw Hill12812.75

Afya presently has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 29.59%. McGraw Hill has a consensus target price of $17.20, suggesting a potential upside of 39.37%. Given McGraw Hill’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe McGraw Hill is more favorable than Afya.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

88.0% of Afya shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of McGraw Hill shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Afya and McGraw Hill”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Afya$662.01 million1.97$134.77 million$1.648.47
McGraw Hill$2.10 billion1.12$35.32 million$0.5024.68

Afya has higher earnings, but lower revenue than McGraw Hill. Afya is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than McGraw Hill, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

McGraw Hill beats Afya on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Afya

(Get Free Report)

Afya Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as a medical education group in Brazil. The company operates through three segments: Undergrad, Continuing Education, and Digital Services. It offers educational products and services, including medical schools, medical residency preparatory courses, graduate courses, and other programs to lifelong medical learners enrolled across its distribution network, as well as to third-party medical schools. The company also provides digital health services, such as subscription-based mobile app and website portal that focuses on assisting health professionals and students with clinical decision-making through tools, such as medical calculators, charts, and updated content, as well as prescriptions, clinical scores, medical procedures and laboratory exams, and others. It offers health sciences courses, which comprise medicine, dentistry, nursing, radiology, psychology, pharmacy, physical education, physiotherapy, nutrition, and biomedicine; and degree programs and courses in other subjects and disciplines, including undergraduate and post graduate courses in business administration, accounting, law, civil engineering, industrial engineering, and pedagogy. In addition, the company provides medical postgraduate specialization programs; printed and digital content; and an online medical education platform and practical medical training services. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Nova Lima, Brazil.

About McGraw Hill

(Get Free Report)

At McGraw Hill, our purpose is to unlock the potential of each learner at every stage of life. Our mission is to support educators, learners and professionals around the world with trusted, high-quality content and digital solutions that use data and learning science to adapt to each student as they progress towards their goals. McGraw Hill is a leading global provider of information solutions for education across K-12 to higher education, and through professional learning. We harness the power of content, data-driven insights, and learning science to deliver personalized learning experiences and drive positive outcomes throughout the entire learning lifecycle. We believe that we have positively impacted hundreds of millions of learners and educators with our personalized learning solutions to support learning at scale worldwide. On an annual basis, we serve approximately 60 million learners and educators. We believe McGraw Hill is one of the most trusted and recognized education brands in the world. Based on the results of a third-party survey that we commissioned in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, we believe that, in the United States, on average, 89% of K-12, higher education and medical school students, faculty and administrators would consider McGraw Hill for their classes. Understanding how learning happens is critical to building effective learning solutions, like ALEKS, which has leveraged data science and machine learning to enhance learning outcomes for over 25 years. Over the last decade, we have invested more than $2.0 billion in developing a suite of market leading digital learning solutions. We utilize our data analytics capabilities to generate continuous feedback loops that drive product and go-to-market innovation, which allows us to simplify workflows while creating meaningful learning experiences that are tailored to the needs of each learner. At McGraw Hill, we recognize that the integrity of educational content is of utmost importance, especially as generative AI becomes more integrated into the learning process. With the proliferation of AI-generated generic content, the risks of inaccurate and low-quality information are heightened, which is why our proprietary content is rigorously researched and designed to meet the highest quality standards. We aim to offer vetted content and data-driven learning solutions that educators and learners can trust. With approximately 1,500 sales professionals worldwide as of March 31, 2025, we believe our global sales force is one of the largest in the education sector, underpinning our ability to serve learners, educators and professionals at scale across the learning lifecycle. Our principal offices are located in Columbus, Ohio.