Contrasting Ashtead Group (OTCMKTS:ASHTY) & Horiba (OTCMKTS:HRIBF)

Ashtead Group (OTCMKTS:ASHTY) and Horiba (OTCMKTS:HRIBF) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Ashtead Group and Horiba, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ashtead Group	0	2	1	1	2.75
Horiba	0	0	0	0	0.00

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ashtead Group and Horiba”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ashtead Group	$10.79 billion	2.87	$1.51 billion	$13.83	21.04
Horiba	$2.10 billion	1.22	$221.71 million	$5.74	10.63

Ashtead Group has higher revenue and earnings than Horiba. Horiba is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashtead Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Ashtead Group and Horiba’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ashtead Group	14.28%	21.32%	7.31%
Horiba	11.19%	12.50%	8.13%

Risk & Volatility

Ashtead Group has a beta of 1.71, suggesting that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Horiba has a beta of 0.2, suggesting that its stock price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.8% of Ashtead Group shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Ashtead Group beats Horiba on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ashtead Group

Ashtead Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the construction, industrial, and general equipment rental business in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It provides pumps, power generation, heating, cooling, scaffolding, traffic management, temporary flooring, trench shoring, and lifting services. The company offers its products and services for facilities maintenance and municipalities, such as office complexes, apartment complexes, government, hospitals, data centers, parks and recreation departments, schools and universities, shopping centers, pavement/kerb repairs, and golf course maintenance; construction of airports, highways and bridges, office buildings, data centers, schools and universities, shopping centers, residential, remodeling, manufacturing plants, and green energy plants; emergency response for fire, hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, winter, storms, residential and health emergencies, alternative care facilities, points of distribution, and mobile testing facilities; and entertainment and special events, including national events, concerts, sporting events, film and telvision production, theme parks, festivals farmers' markets, local 5k runs, and cycle races. It operates 1,094 stores in the United States, 119 stores in Canada, and 185 stores in the United Kingdom under the Sunbelt Rentals brand. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Horiba

HORIBA, Ltd. manufactures and sells instruments and systems worldwide. The company operates in five segments: Automotive, Environment/Process, Medical, Semiconductor, and Scientific. The Automotive segment offers engine emission measurement devices; in-use vehicle emission measurement devices; on-board emission measurement devices; in-vehicle exhaust gas measuring devices; driveline test systems; engine test systems; brake test systems; fuel cell test devices; battery test devices; and vehicle development engineering and test engineering services, as well as leases and manages research and development facilities. The Environment/Process segment provides flue gas analyzers, water quality measuring devices, air pollution monitoring analyzers, environmental radiation measuring instruments, and process measurement equipment. The Medical segment offers hematology and CRP, immunology, clinical chemistry, and blood glucose analyzers, blood cell counters, biochemical testing devices, blood glucose testing devices, as well as coagulation/hemostasis analyzers. The Semiconductor segment provides mass flow controllers, chemical concentration monitors, semiconductor contaminant inspection equipment, and residual gas analyzer. The Scientific segment offers Raman spectrometers, pH meters, water quality measuring devices, particle size distribution measuring devices, X -ray fluorescence analyzers, elemental analyzers, fluorescence spectroscopy/lifetime measurement devices, spectrometer/detectors, and gratings. It also engages in the fund management, software development, and automation software for engine. The company’s products are used in arts, entertainment, and recreation; education, research and development, and government institution; food and beverage; energy and environment; health care; industrials; information technology; water; materials; mobility and transport; and waste management applications. HORIBA, Ltd. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.