Financial Analysis: Spire Global (NYSE:SPIR) versus General Dynamics (NYSE:GD)

Spire Global (NYSE:SPIR) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Spire Global has a beta of 2.38, suggesting that its share price is 138% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Dynamics has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Spire Global and General Dynamics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Spire Global	0	1	4	0	2.80
General Dynamics	1	12	9	0	2.36

Spire Global presently has a consensus price target of $18.20, suggesting a potential upside of 100.73%. General Dynamics has a consensus price target of $315.78, suggesting a potential downside of 2.73%. Given Spire Global’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Spire Global is more favorable than General Dynamics.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Spire Global and General Dynamics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Spire Global	$110.45 million	2.55	-$102.82 million	($3.48)	-2.61
General Dynamics	$47.72 billion	1.83	$3.78 billion	$14.90	21.79

General Dynamics has higher revenue and earnings than Spire Global. Spire Global is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than General Dynamics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Spire Global and General Dynamics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Spire Global	-98.42%	-492.01%	-37.32%
General Dynamics	8.13%	17.99%	7.21%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

20.0% of Spire Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.1% of General Dynamics shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.7% of Spire Global shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of General Dynamics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

General Dynamics beats Spire Global on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Spire Global

Spire Global, Inc. provides subscription-based data, insights, predictive analytics, and related project-based services worldwide. The company offers satellite-based aircraft tracking data to power applications, drive decision making, and improve cost efficiencies; data, insights, and predictive analytics for highly accurate ship monitoring, real-time and near real-time vessel updates, port operations, ship safety and route optimization; and space-based data, AI-powered insights, and predictive weather analytics for accurate weather forecasting. It serves maritime, weather, aviation, and space services industries. The company was formerly known as Nanosatisfi, Inc. and changed its name to Spire Global, Inc. in July 2014. Spire Global, Inc. is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia.

About General Dynamics

General Dynamics Corporation operates as an aerospace and defense company worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aerospace, Marine Systems, Combat Systems, and Technologies. The Aerospace segment produces and sells business jets; and offers aircraft maintenance and repair, management, aircraft-on-ground support and completion, charter, staffing, and fixed-base operator services. The Marine Systems segment designs and builds nuclear-powered submarines, surface combatants, and auxiliary ships for the United States Navy and Jones Act ships for commercial customers, as well as builds crude oil and product tankers, and container and cargo ships; provides maintenance, modernization, and lifecycle support services for navy ships; offers and program management, planning, engineering, and design support services for submarine construction programs. The Combat Systems segment manufactures land combat solutions, such as wheeled and tracked combat vehicles, Stryker wheeled combat vehicles, piranha vehicles, weapons systems, munitions, mobile bridge systems with payloads, tactical vehicles, main battle tanks, armored vehicles, and armaments; and offers modernization programs, engineering, support, and sustainment services. The Technologies segment provides information technology solutions and mission support services; mobile communication, computers, and command-and-control mission systems; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions to military, intelligence, and federal civilian customers; cloud computing, artificial intelligence; machine learning; big data analytics; development, security, and operations; and unmanned undersea vehicle manufacturing and assembly services. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.