Reviewing Burnham (OTCMKTS:BURCA) & Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD)

Burnham (OTCMKTS:BURCA) and Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Burnham and Middleby”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Burnham	$270.18 million	0.30	$11.95 million	$3.48	6.90
Middleby	$3.88 billion	1.85	$428.43 million	$7.86	18.04

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

Volatility and Risk

Burnham has a beta of 0.15, meaning that its stock price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Middleby has a beta of 1.54, meaning that its stock price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

1.5% of Burnham shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.6% of Middleby shares are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of Middleby 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.

Profitability

This table compares Burnham and Middleby’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Burnham	5.93%	13.16%	7.64%
Middleby	11.06%	14.14%	7.06%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Burnham and Middleby, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Burnham	0	0	0	0	0.00
Middleby	2	1	6	0	2.44

Middleby has a consensus target price of $161.13, suggesting a potential upside of 13.62%. Given Middleby’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Middleby is more favorable than Burnham.

Summary

Middleby beats Burnham on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Burnham

Burnham Holdings, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells boilers and related heating, ventilation, and air conditioning products and accessories for residential, commercial, and industrial applications in the United States and internationally. Its residential hydronic heating products include cast iron, stainless steel, and steel boilers; cast iron and steel heat distribution products; radiators; and warm air furnaces and central air conditioning systems for the residential heating and cooling markets, including units for the manufactured housing industry. The company's commercial and industrial heating products comprise a range of cast iron, stainless steel, fire tube, water tube, copper tube boilers, and water heaters; and boiler room accessories that are used for various applications, such as military bases, multi-unit residential buildings, health care, government, education, and hospital facilities. The company sells its residential products through wholesale distributors to builders, heating contractors, fuel dealers, and utilities for resale to end-use customers; and commercial products primarily through independent sales representatives, directly to contractors, or end users. Burnham Holdings, Inc. is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

About Middleby

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing. The company's Food Processing Equipment Group segment provides batch, baking, proofing, conveyor belt, and continuous processing ovens; frying and automated thermal processing systems; tumblers, massagers, grinders, slicers, reduction and emulsion systems, mixers, and blenders; battering, breading, and seeding equipment; water cutting systems, food presses, food suspension equipment, filling and depositing solutions, and forming equipment; and automated washing systems, auto-guided vehicles, food safety, food handling, freezing, and defrosting and packaging equipment. Its Residential Kitchen Equipment Group segment offers kitchen equipment comprising cookers, stoves, cooktops, microwaves, ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, undercounter refrigeration, wine cellars, ice machines, beer dispensers, mixers, rotisseries, and ventilation and outdoor cooking equipment. The company was formerly known as Middleby Marshall Oven Company and changed its name to The Middleby Corporation in 1985. The company was founded in 1888 and is based in Elgin, Illinois.