Comparing Advent Technologies (NASDAQ:ADN) & Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL)

Advent Technologies (NASDAQ:ADN) and Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Advent Technologies and Powell Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Advent Technologies	N/A	N/A	-258.92%
Powell Industries	16.22%	33.16%	18.23%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

17.5% of Advent Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of Powell Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Advent Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Powell Industries shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Advent Technologies has a beta of 0.73, indicating that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Powell Industries has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Advent Technologies and Powell Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Advent Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00
Powell Industries	0	0	1	1	3.50

Powell Industries has a consensus target price of $312.00, indicating a potential upside of 27.95%. Given Powell Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Powell Industries is more favorable than Advent Technologies.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Advent Technologies and Powell Industries”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Advent Technologies	$3.28 million	1.54	-$40.99 million	($26.97)	-0.07
Powell Industries	$1.01 billion	2.91	$149.85 million	$14.40	16.93

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

Summary

Powell Industries beats Advent Technologies on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Advent Technologies

Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc., an advanced materials and technology development company, operates in the fuel cell and hydrogen technology markets in North America, Europe, and Asia. It develops, manufactures, and assembles fuel cell systems and critical components that determine the performance of hydrogen fuel cells and other energy systems. The company offers high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cells, including membrane electrode assemblies, bipolar plates, and reformers, as well as provides fuel-cell stack assembly and testing services. It serves stationary power, portable power, automotive, aviation, energy storage, and sensor markets. The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

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.