BAH vs SAIC: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?
Last updated August 2026
Short answer
BAH is the larger of the two ($8.39B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (10.39x forward earnings, beta 0.36). SAIC is the smaller challenger ($5.34B), priced similarly on forward earnings (11.48x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.
BAH vs SAIC: the tie-breaker metrics
Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.
| Metric | BAH | SAIC | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $8.39B | $5.34B | Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove. |
| Forward P/E | 10.39 | 11.48 | Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up. |
| Trailing P/E | 10.95 | 14.21 | Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price. |
| Beta | 0.36 | 0.29 | Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through. |
| Price vs 52-week range | 19% of range | 93% of range | Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why. |
| Price / book | 6.98 | 3.82 | How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price. |
Before you buy: how BAH and SAIC affect your concentration
The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. BAH and SAIC share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.
This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined BAH and SAIC exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
What does Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) do?
Booz Allen Hamilton is a management and technology consulting firm that works almost entirely for the US government, spanning the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and civilian agencies. Its people-heavy model deploys tens of thousands of cleared consultants and engineers on missions ranging from cyber defense and data analytics to AI deployment, systems modernization, and mission operations. The company carries a large multi-year backlog (recently around $38 billion) that provides visibility into future revenue, and it measures order momentum through a book-to-bill ratio.
What does Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) do?
Science Applications International Corporation is a Reston, Virginia contractor that designs, integrates and runs technology systems for federal agencies. It calls itself a mission integrator, which in practice means systems engineering, mission IT, enterprise IT and professional services delivered under roughly 1,700 active contracts by about 23,000 employees. The business reports in two segments. Defense and Intelligence produced about $1.47 billion of revenue in the quarter ended May 1, 2026, serving the Department of War (the renamed Department of Defense) and the intelligence community. Civilian produced about $440 million, covering federal civilian agencies plus state and local customers in areas like travel, trade and public health. In fiscal 2026, about 52% of revenue came from the Department of War and about 46% from intelligence and other federal agencies, with 98% of the total tied to prime contracts or subcontracts for the U.S. government. This is the company that kept the SAIC name in the 2013 separation; the parent renamed itself Leidos.
BAH vs SAIC: how do they differ?
Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.
- BAH drivers: Defense and intelligence demand; Backlog and book-to-bill.
- SAIC drivers: Margin repair under new leadership; A shrinking share count doing heavy lifting.
Which fits which kind of investor
A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The dominant risk is concentration: with roughly 98% of revenue from the US government, Booz Allen is highly exposed to federal budget decisions, procurement delays, and contract cancellations. For SAIC, the central risk is stated in the guidance itself: management expects organic revenue to decline 2% to 4% in fiscal 2027, so the earnings growth on offer comes from margin and share count rather than demand.
BAH or SAIC: which should you pick?
Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick BAH if you believe its drivers more; SAIC if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the BAH and SAIC guides.
BAH vs SAIC: the full fundamentals
BAH. Booz Allen's fiscal 2026 revenue declined for the first time in years as federal spending cuts and slower procurement reduced billable work, though adjusted EPS edged higher on cost discipline and buybacks. The stock trades at a low earnings multiple well below its historical average and below several peers, reflecting the federal spending reset. Fiscal 2027 guidance points to roughly flat revenue with EPS around $6.00 to $6.35.
SAIC. The multiple looks undemanding on earnings and less so on cash flow: an enterprise value near $7.7 billion against guided adjusted EBITDA of roughly $725 million works out around 10.6 times, which is a normal price for a stable federal services book and a full one for a business guiding revenue lower. The stock traded around $126 in late August 2026 inside a 52-week range of roughly $81 to $130, so most of the margin story has already been repriced. What the numbers do not settle is whether fiscal 2027 is the trough of a portfolio reset or the start of a slower drift, and backlog conversion over the next few quarters is the thing that answers it.
Headline figures (approximate, July 2026): BAH shows revenue (fy2026) ~$11.2B (down ~6%), adjusted diluted eps (fy2026) ~$6.51, adjusted ebitda (fy2026) ~$1.23B (~11% margin), backlog ~$38B; SAIC shows revenue (ttm) ~$7.29B, versus ~$7.26B in fiscal 2026 and ~$7.48B in fiscal 2025, adjusted ebitda ~$708M in fiscal 2026 (9.7% margin); fiscal 2027 guided to ~$720M to ~$730M (10.1% to 10.3%), diluted eps ~$8.89 trailing GAAP; ~$7.70 in fiscal 2026; fiscal 2027 adjusted EPS guided to ~$9.90 to ~$10.10, total backlog / book-to-bill ~$22.9B at May 1, 2026 (~$3.7B funded); Q1 book-to-bill ~1.1x, trailing twelve months ~1.0x.
The bottom line: BAH vs SAIC
BAH and SAIC are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined BAH and SAIC exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.
Wondering how BAH or SAIC fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Booz Allen Hamilton with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how BAH fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What is the difference between BAH and SAIC?
+
Booz Allen Hamilton is a management and technology consulting firm that works almost entirely for the US government, spanning the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and civilian agencies. Science Applications International Corporation is a Reston, Virginia contractor that designs, integrates and runs technology systems for federal agencies. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.
Is BAH or SAIC the better stock?
+
Neither is universally better. BAH is the larger incumbent; SAIC is the smaller challenger and looks pricier on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.
Which is cheaper, BAH or SAIC?
+
On forward P/E (as of August 2026), BAH trades at 10.39x and SAIC at 11.48x, so BAH is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.
Should you own both BAH and SAIC?
+
Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.
What are the risks of BAH vs SAIC?
+
BAH: The dominant risk is concentration: with roughly 98% of revenue from the US government, Booz Allen is highly exposed to federal budget decisions, procurement delays, and contract cancellations. The 2025 to 2026 push to cut federal spending drove revenue lower, prompted thousands of job cuts, and hit the civilian segment especially hard, with some Civil revenue down sharply. Reputational and compliance risk is real too, as seen when the Treasury moved to terminate contracts tied to a historic data-breach matter. A prolonged shift away from consultants, tighter margins from competitive re-competes, and dependence on cleared-labor availability all add uncertainty. If defense and intelligence growth fails to offset civilian declines, revenue and earnings could stay under pressure. SAIC: The central risk is stated in the guidance itself: management expects organic revenue to decline 2% to 4% in fiscal 2027, so the earnings growth on offer comes from margin and share count rather than demand. Customer concentration is close to total, with 98% of revenue tied to the U.S. government, which means appropriations lapses, agency efficiency reviews and program cancellations hit the whole business at once rather than a division of it; the 10-K notes the government shut down for 43 days beginning October 1, 2025 and that the Department of Homeland Security was still awaiting fiscal 2026 appropriations. About 62% of revenue comes from cost-reimbursement contracts, which limits downside on any single job but also caps how far margins can travel. Recompete losses are the structural threat in federal services, since large multi-year awards come up for rebid on a schedule and a single loss can remove hundreds of millions of revenue with no replacement in hand. Finally, the balance sheet carries roughly $2.4 billion of net debt and $2.94 billion of goodwill against about $1.4 billion of book equity, so a sustained revenue decline would compress leverage headroom and the buyback capacity that is currently doing much of the work.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell BAH or SAIC; figures are approximate and dated (as of August 2026). Verify current data before investing.