Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC): The Best Choice In Computer Services

One of the leaders in computer services, Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC) provides a variety of services to its clients, including consulting, outsourcing, and systems integration. With shares more than doubling since their 52-week low of $22.19 hit last summer, but still about 20% below their pre-recession high, should investors wait for Computer Sciences to cool off a bit, or will the gains continue?

About CSC

As mentioned, Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC) offers consulting, outsourcing, and integration services to its clients. Their outsourcing services involve operating all or some of a company’s computing infrastructure. This includes, among other things, applications development, network operations, data center management. They also provide business process outsourcing, which refers to things like call centers, or what people typically think of when they hear the term.

Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC)’s other services include systems integration (designing, developing, and implementing systems), consulting services, and some software system licensing services.

Competition

Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC) competes with large computing services companies such as International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) as well as smaller firms such as CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI).

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is one of the best known tech companies in the world, and has evolved into a systems, services, and software giant, in addition to producing the hardware products for which they are traditionally known. Last year, IBM earned just 17% of their revenues from hardware, while services and software contributed a combined 80%. This is why International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is a threat to companies like Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC).

However, as a larger, more mature company, IBM’s growth potential is not nearly as exciting, with 13% annual earnings growth projected over the next three years. That being said, IBM trades for a very reasonable 12.3 times forward earnings.

CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI), on the other end of the spectrum, is a much smaller IT company, and has a similar product and service profile to CSC. At just 9.6 times earnings, CACI looks to be the cheapest of the three, but this could be deceiving. CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI) is projected to earn $6.51 per share this year, and then experience negative earnings growth averaging 2.5% for the next few years. This is a big red flag! Furthermore, the company’s balance sheet is not too enticing. The company has just $15 million in cash and over $500 million in debt, which is very significant for a company whose market cap is just over $1.4 billion.