Astronics (OTCMKTS:ATROB) vs. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Critical Comparison

Astronics (OTCMKTS:ATROB) and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) are both aerospace companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Astronics and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Astronics	0	0	0	0	0.00
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions	0	3	13	1	2.88

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has a consensus target price of $63.50, indicating a potential downside of 38.76%. Given Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is more favorable than Astronics.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Astronics and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Astronics	$795.43 million	2.14	-$16.22 million	($0.12)	-400.08
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions	$1.14 billion	15.40	$16.30 million	$0.10	1,036.90

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than Astronics. Astronics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Astronics has a beta of 1.51, meaning that its share price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.9% of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.0% of Astronics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Astronics and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Astronics	-0.45%	22.89%	9.16%
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions	1.20%	3.10%	2.22%

Summary

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions beats Astronics on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Astronics

Astronics Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures products for the aerospace, defense, and electronics industries in the United States, rest of North America, Asia, Europe, South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace and Test Systems. The Aerospace segment offers lighting and safety systems, electrical power generation systems, distribution and seat motions systems, aircraft structures, avionics products, system certification, and other products. This segment serves airframe manufacturers (OEM) that build aircraft for the commercial, military, and general aviation markets; suppliers to OEMs; and aircraft operators, such as airlines; suppliers to the aircraft operators; and branches of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Test Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, and maintains automated test systems that support the aerospace and defense, and mass transit industries, as well as training and simulation devices for commercial and military applications. It serves OEMs and prime government contractors for electronics and military products. Astronics Corporation was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in East Aurora, New York.

About Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. engages in the provision of mission critical products, services and solutions for United States national security priorities. It operates through the Kratos Government Solutions (KGS) and Unmanned Systems (US) segments. The KGS segment consists of an aggregation of KGS operating segments, including microwave electronic products, space, satellite and cyber, training solutions. The US segment refers to the unmanned aerial, unmanned ground, unmanned seaborne and related command, control and communications system businesses. The company was founded on December 19, 1994, and is headquartered in Round Rock, TX.