Contrasting PowerFleet (NASDAQ:AIOT) and Matson (NYSE:MATX)

PowerFleet (NASDAQ:AIOT) and Matson (NYSE:MATX) are both transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares PowerFleet and Matson”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PowerFleet	$362.52 million	1.94	-$50.99 million	($0.30)	-17.60
Matson	$3.42 billion	0.88	$476.40 million	$14.79	6.38

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for PowerFleet and Matson, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PowerFleet	1	1	5	0	2.57
Matson	0	5	1	0	2.17

PowerFleet currently has a consensus price target of $10.50, indicating a potential upside of 98.86%. Matson has a consensus price target of $131.67, indicating a potential upside of 39.57%. Given PowerFleet’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe PowerFleet is more favorable than Matson.

Profitability

This table compares PowerFleet and Matson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PowerFleet	-9.95%	-8.56%	-4.45%
Matson	14.26%	18.90%	10.95%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.4% of PowerFleet shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.8% of Matson shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of PowerFleet shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Matson shares are held by 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.

Volatility & Risk

PowerFleet has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Matson has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Matson beats PowerFleet on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PowerFleet

PowerFleet, Inc. engages in the provision of fleet management solutions for logistics, industrial, and vehicles. It offers wireless Internet of Things and machine to machine solutions for securing, controlling, tracking, and managing enterprise assets such as industrial trucks, tractor trailers, containers, cargo, and vehicle and truck fleets. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Israel, and Other. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.

About Matson

Matson, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of ocean transportation and logistics services. It operates through two segments, Ocean Transportation and Logistics. The Ocean Transportation segment offers ocean freight transportation services to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Japan, Alaska, and Guam, as well as to other island economies in Micronesia. It primarily transports dry containers of mixed commodities, refrigerated commodities, food products, beverages, building materials, automobiles, and household goods; livestock; seafood; general sustenance cargo; and garments, footwear, e-commerce, and other retail merchandise. This segment also operates an expedited service from China to Long Beach, California, and various islands in the South Pacific, as well as Okinawa, Japan; and provides stevedoring, refrigerated cargo services, inland transportation, container equipment maintenance, and other terminal services to ocean carriers on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai, as well as in the Alaska locations of Anchorage, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor. In addition, it offers vessel management and container transshipment services. The Logistics segment provides multimodal transportation brokerage services, including domestic and international rail intermodal, long-haul and regional highway trucking, specialized hauling, flat-bed and project, less-than-truckload, and expedited freight services; less-than-container load consolidation and freight forwarding services; warehousing and distribution services; supply chain management services, and non-vessel operating common carrier freight forwarding services. It serves the U.S. military, freight forwarders, retailers, consumer goods, automobile manufacturers, and other customers. The company was formerly known as Alexander & Baldwin Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Matson, Inc. in June 2012. Matson, Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.