Crawford United (OTCMKTS:CRAWA) and Generac (NYSE:GNRC) Critical Survey

Crawford United (OTCMKTS:CRAWA) and Generac (NYSE:GNRC) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Crawford United and Generac’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crawford United	9.48%	21.02%	12.96%
Generac	7.91%	19.14%	9.19%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.1% of Crawford United shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.0% of Generac shares are held by institutional investors. 37.9% of Crawford United shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Generac shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Crawford United has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Generac has a beta of 1.63, meaning that its stock price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Crawford United and Generac, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crawford United	0	0	0	0	0.00
Generac	0	7	12	0	2.63

Generac has a consensus price target of $180.78, suggesting a potential upside of 8.01%. Given Generac’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Generac is more favorable than Crawford United.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Crawford United and Generac”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crawford United	$150.20 million	1.75	$13.60 million	$4.38	16.89
Generac	$4.30 billion	2.29	$325.26 million	$6.02	27.80

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

Summary

Generac beats Crawford United on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crawford United

Crawford United Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides specialty industrial products in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Commercial Air Handling Equipment; and Industrial and Transportation Products. The Commercial Air Handling segment designs, manufactures, and installs large-scale commercial, institutional, and industrial custom air handling solutions to health care, education, pharmaceutical, and industrial manufacturing markets under the FactoryBilt and SiteBilt brand names. The Industrial and Transportation Products segment is involved in the manufacture of flexible interlocking metal hoses primarily to heavy-duty truck manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers, as well as to the agricultural, industrial, and petrochemical markets; and distribution of silicone and hydraulic hoses to the agriculture and general industrial markets. It also provides engineering, machining, grinding, welding, brazing, heat treat, and assembly solutions; rubber and plastic marine hose for the recreational boating industry; engineered manufacturing solutions, including CNC machining, anodizing, electro polishing, and laser marking for defense, aerospace, and medical device markets; and hydraulic hoses, air tank assemblies, and related products to manufacturers of firefighting trucks and other emergency vehicles. In addition, the company engages in the supply of highly engineered forgings for the aerospace, industrial gas turbine, medical prosthetics, alternative energy, petrochemical, and defense industries; and developing and commercializing marketing and data analytic technology applications. The company was formerly known as Hickok Incorporated and changed its name to Crawford United Corporation in May 2019. Crawford United Corporation was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

About Generac

Generac Holdings Inc. designs, manufactures, and distributes various energy technology products and solution worldwide. The company offers residential automatic standby generators, automatic transfer switch, air-cooled engine residential standby generators, and liquid-cooled engine generators; Mobile Link, a remote monitoring system for home standby generators; residential storage solution, which consists of a system of batteries, an inverter, photovoltaic optimizers, power electronic controls, and other components; smart home solutions, such as smart thermostats and a suite of home monitoring products. It also provides smart home energy management devices and sensors for heating and cooling system; smart doorbell cameras; and portable and inverter generators; multiple portable battery solutions; manual transfer switches; outdoor power equipment, including trimmers, field and brush mowers, log splitters, stump grinders, chipper shredders, lawn and leaf vacuums, and pressure washers and water pumps; and battery-powered turf care products. In addition, the company offers commercial and industrial products comprising cleaner-burning natural gas fueled generators; light-commercial standby generators and related transfer switches; stationary generators; single-engine industrial generators; industrial standby generators; industrial transfer switches; light towers, mobile generators, commercial mobile pumps, heaters, dust-suppression equipment, and mobile energy storage systems; stationary energy storage system and related inverter products; and aftermarket service parts and product accessories. The company distributes its products through independent residential dealers, industrial distributors and dealers, national and regional retailers, e-commerce partners, electrical/HVAC/solar wholesalers, solar installers, catalogs, equipment rental companies, and other equipment distributors; and directly to end users. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Waukesha, Wisconsin.