Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) and Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) Financial Comparison

Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) and Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Yaskawa Electric and Novanta, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yaskawa Electric	0	1	0	0	2.00
Novanta	0	1	0	0	2.00

Novanta has a consensus target price of $133.00, indicating a potential upside of 13.07%. Given Novanta’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Novanta is more favorable than Yaskawa Electric.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.4% of Novanta shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Novanta shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and Novanta”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Yaskawa Electric	$3.53 billion	1.50	$376.12 million	$2.83	14.46
Novanta	$949.24 million	4.46	$64.09 million	$1.70	69.19

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

Risk and Volatility

Yaskawa Electric has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Novanta has a beta of 1.48, suggesting that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and Novanta’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yaskawa Electric	10.37%	12.90%	7.54%
Novanta	6.41%	14.70%	7.88%

Summary

Novanta beats Yaskawa Electric on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Yaskawa Electric

YASKAWA Electric Corporation engages in motion control, robotics, system engineering, and other businesses worldwide. It manufactures and sells various AC drives, including general purpose AC drives, specific purpose AC drives, AC Drive for systems, regenerative energy saving units, and PM motors for use in household appliances, such as air conditioners and refrigerators; social infrastructures comprising elevators, escalators, trains, cranes, fans, and pumps; and factories that manufacture printing machinery, textile machinery, rubber machinery, and other materials. The company also offers rotary servo motors, direct drive servo motors, linear motors/linear sliders, machine controllers, positioning sensor encoders, and servo amplifiers for use in industrial robots, semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, machine tools, flat panel display manufacturing equipment, and metal working machines; and arc and spot welding, handling/assembling, collaborative, biomedical, palletizing, press handling, sealing/cutting/laser machining, deburring, painting, glass substrates transfer, and semiconductor wafer transfer robots for use in semiconductor wafer conveyance, arc welding, spot welding, handling, assembly, and palletizing applications. In addition, it provides industrial system electrical products, such as medium-voltage AC drives, system use AC drives, and system controllers for use in iron and steel systems, water and wastewater treatment, crane, and paper-making/film/port cargo handling/fiber/printing applications. Further, the company offers equipment for energy saving and creation comprising PV inverters, systems for large wind turbines, control equipment for small-scale power generation, and motor drive systems for use in photovoltaic power generation, large-scale wind power generation, small-scale power generation, and electric vehicles. The company was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Kitakyushu, Japan.

About Novanta

Novanta, Inc. engages in the provision of core technology solutions to healthcare and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers. It operates through the following segments: Photonics, Vision, and Precision Motion. The Photonics segment designs, manufactures, and markets photonics-based solutions, including laser scanning and laser beam delivery, CO2 laser, continuous wave and ultrafast laser, and optical light engine products. The Vision segment offers a range of medical grade technologies, including medical insufflators, pumps and related disposables, surgical displays and operating room integration technologies, optical data collection and machine vision technologies, radio frequency identification technologies, thermal printers, spectrometry technologies, and embedded touch screen solutions. The Precision Motion segment includes optical encoders, precision motor and motion control technology, air bearing spindles, and precision machined components to customers. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Bedford, MA.