Comparing Horiba (OTCMKTS:HRIBF) and MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM)

Horiba (OTCMKTS:HRIBF) and MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Horiba and MSC Industrial Direct, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horiba	0	0	0	0	0.00
MSC Industrial Direct	0	3	1	1	2.60

MSC Industrial Direct has a consensus target price of $90.3333, suggesting a potential downside of 0.43%. Given MSC Industrial Direct’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MSC Industrial Direct is more favorable than Horiba.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by institutional investors. 18.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Horiba and MSC Industrial Direct”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horiba	$2.10 billion	1.46	$221.71 million	$5.74	12.74
MSC Industrial Direct	$3.82 billion	1.32	$258.59 million	$3.54	25.63

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

Risk and Volatility

Horiba has a beta of 0.2, suggesting that its share price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Horiba and MSC Industrial Direct’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horiba	11.19%	12.50%	8.13%
MSC Industrial Direct	5.30%	14.99%	8.39%

Summary

MSC Industrial Direct beats Horiba on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About MSC Industrial Direct

MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes metalworking and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products and services in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's MRO products include cutting tools, measuring instruments, tooling components, metalworking products, fasteners, flat stock products, raw materials, abrasives, machinery hand and power tools, safety and janitorial supplies, plumbing supplies, materials handling products, power transmission components, and electrical supplies. It offers stock-keeping units through its catalogs and brochures; e-commerce channels, including its website, mscdirect.com; inventory management solutions; and customer care centers, customer fulfillment centers, regional inventory centers, and warehouses. The company serves individual machine shops, manufacturing companies, and government agencies. MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Melville, New York.