Reviewing Ideal Power (NASDAQ:IPWR) & Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL)

Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL) and Ideal Power (NASDAQ:IPWR) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

Powell Industries has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ideal Power has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Powell Industries and Ideal Power”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Powell Industries	$1.01 billion	2.78	$149.85 million	$14.23	16.40
Ideal Power	$90,000.00	378.53	-$10.42 million	($1.21)	-3.37

Powell Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Ideal Power. Ideal Power is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Powell Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

89.8% of Powell Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.4% of Ideal Power shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Powell Industries shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Ideal Power shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Powell Industries and Ideal Power, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Powell Industries	0	0	1	1	3.50
Ideal Power	0	1	0	0	2.00

Powell Industries presently has a consensus price target of $312.00, indicating a potential upside of 33.67%. Given Powell Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Powell Industries is more favorable than Ideal Power.

Profitability

This table compares Powell Industries and Ideal Power’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Powell Industries	16.22%	33.16%	18.23%
Ideal Power	-56,057.89%	-56.75%	-51.06%

Summary

Powell Industries beats Ideal Power on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Powell Industries

Powell Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services custom-engineered equipment and systems. The company’s principal products include integrated power control room substations, custom-engineered modules, electrical houses, medium-voltage circuit breakers, monitoring and control communications systems, motor control centers, switches, and bus duct systems, as well as traditional and arc-resistant distribution switchgears and control gears. Its products have application in voltages ranging from 480 volts to 38,000 volts. The company also provide field service inspection, installation, commissioning, modification and repair, spare parts, retrofit and retrofill components for existing systems, and replacement circuit breakers for switchgear. It serves onshore and offshore production, liquefied natural gas facilities and terminals, pipelines, refineries, and petrochemical plants, as well as electric utility, light rail traction power, mining and metals, pulp and paper, data centers and other municipal, commercial, and industrial markets. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Mexico, and Central and South America. Powell Industries, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Ideal Power

Ideal Power Inc. focuses on the development and commercialization of its bidirectional bipolar junction TRANsistor solid-state switch technology. It also offers SymCool Power Module designed to meet low conduction loss needs of the solid-state circuit breaker market. The company serves electric and hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging, renewable energy and energy storage system power converters, uninterruptible power supplies for data centers, industrial motor drives, solid-state circuit breakers, distribution and transmission switches and controls, and other industrial and military markets. The company was formerly known as Ideal Power Converters Inc. and changed its name to Ideal Power Inc. in July 2013. Ideal Power Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.