Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) versus Cooper-Standard (NYSE:CPS) Head-To-Head Review

Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) and Cooper-Standard (NYSE:CPS) are both small-cap auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and risk.

Risk & Volatility

Wabash National has a beta of 1.67, meaning that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cooper-Standard has a beta of 2.72, meaning that its share price is 172% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Wabash National and Cooper-Standard’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wabash National	-6.38%	-7.91%	-1.65%
Cooper-Standard	1.08%	N/A	-0.58%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Wabash National and Cooper-Standard”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wabash National	$1.95 billion	0.23	-$284.07 million	($2.42)	-4.61
Cooper-Standard	$83.31 billion	0.01	-$78.75 million	$1.62	23.42

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Wabash National and Cooper-Standard, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wabash National	0	1	0	0	2.00
Cooper-Standard	0	2	1	0	2.33

Wabash National presently has a consensus price target of $9.50, indicating a potential downside of 14.93%. Cooper-Standard has a consensus price target of $25.50, indicating a potential downside of 32.79%. Given Wabash National’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Wabash National is more favorable than Cooper-Standard.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.1% of Wabash National shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.1% of Cooper-Standard shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of Wabash National shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.8% of Cooper-Standard shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Cooper-Standard beats Wabash National on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wabash National

Wabash National Corporation provides connected solutions for the transportation, logistics, and distribution industries primarily in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Transportation Solutions and Parts & Services. The Transportation Solutions segment designs and manufactures transportation-related equipment and products dry and refrigerated van trailers, platform trailers, tank trailers, and truck-mounted tanks; truck bodies for dry-freight transportation; cargo and cargo XL bodies for commercial applications; refrigerated truck bodies; platform truck bodies; and used trailers, as well as laminated hardwood oak flooring products. The Parts & Services segment provides aftermarket parts and services; steel flatbed bodies, truck body mounting, shelving for package delivery, partitions, roof racks, hitches, liftgates, thermal solutions, and others; truck body repair parts; and door repair and replacement, collision repair, and basic maintenance services. It also develops and scales a digital marketplace for the transportation and logistics distribution industry; operates a parts and services distribution platform; and stainless steel storage tanks and silos, mixers, and processors for the dairy, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical, craft brewing, and biotech markets; trailers as a service; and composite products, including truck bodies, overhead doors, and other industrial application products, as well as used trailers. The company offers its products under the Wabash, DuraPlate, DuraPlateHD, DuraPlate AeroSkirt, and AeroSkirt CX brands, as well as EcoNex brand. It serves its products to truckload common carriers, leasing companies, private fleet carriers, less-than-truckload common carriers, and package carriers. Wabash National Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana.

About Cooper-Standard

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., through its subsidiary, Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc., manufactures and sells sealing, fuel and brake delivery, and fluid transfer systems in the United States, Mexico, China, Poland, Canada, Germany, France, and internationally. The company offers sealing systems, including dynamic seals, static seals, encapsulated glasses, textured surfaces with cloth appearance, obstacle detection sensor systems, FlushSeal systems, variable extrusions, specialty sealing products, stainless steel trims, and frameless systems. It also provides fuel and brake delivery systems comprising chassis and tank fuel lines and bundles, metallic brake lines and bundles, quick connects, low oligomer multi-layer convoluted tubes, brake jounce lines, direct injection and port fuel rails, MagAlloy break tube coating, and ArmorTube brake tube coating. In addition, the company offers fluid transfer systems, such as heater/coolant hoses, turbo charger hoses, charged air cooler ducts/assemblies, diesel particulate filter lines, secondary air hoses, degas tanks and deaerators, brake and clutch hoses, air intake and discharge systems, transmission oil cooling hoses, high temperature MLTs, and multilayer tubing for glycol thermal management. Its products are primarily used in passenger vehicles and light trucks that are manufactured by automotive original equipment manufacturers and replacement markets. Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Northville, Michigan.