Financial Survey: Spruce Power (NYSE:SPRU) vs. Mistras Group (NYSE:MG)

Mistras Group (NYSE:MG) and Spruce Power (NYSE:SPRU) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Mistras Group and Spruce Power, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mistras Group	0	1	0	1	3.00
Spruce Power	1	0	0	0	1.00

Mistras Group currently has a consensus target price of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.44%. Given Mistras Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Mistras Group is more favorable than Spruce Power.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.9% of Mistras Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.8% of Spruce Power shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.3% of Mistras Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.7% of Spruce Power shares are owned 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 Mistras Group and Spruce Power’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mistras Group	2.55%	13.10%	4.97%
Spruce Power	-23.23%	-18.82%	-2.86%

Risk and Volatility

Mistras Group has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Spruce Power has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Mistras Group and Spruce Power”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mistras Group	$729.64 million	0.57	$18.96 million	$0.58	22.91
Spruce Power	$82.11 million	1.13	-$70.49 million	($1.38)	-3.71

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

Summary

Mistras Group beats Spruce Power on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mistras Group

Mistras Group, Inc. provides technology-enabled asset protection solutions in the United States, other Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. The company offers non-destructive testing services; inline inspection for pipelines; and plant condition management software. It also provides maintenance and light mechanical services, such as corrosion removal, mitigation and prevention, insulation installation and removal, electrical, heat tracing, industrial cleaning, pipefitting, and welding; engineering consulting services primarily for process equipment, technologies, and facilities; and utilizes scaffolding and rope access to access at-height and confined assets. In addition, the company offers certified divers for subsea inspection and maintenance; unmanned aerial, land-based, and subsea systems for inspection applications; online condition-monitoring solutions; quality assurance and quality control solutions for new and existing metal and alloy components, materials, and composites. Further, it builds monitoring systems, as well as provides inspection, maintenance, monitoring and data services; and Web-based solutions. Additionally, the company designs, manufactures, and sells acoustic emission sensors, instruments, and turnkey systems for monitoring and testing materials, pressure components, processes, and structures; and ultrasonic testing equipment. It serves oil and gas, aerospace and defense, fossil and nuclear power, power generation and transmission, civil infrastructure, manufacturing, industrial, public infrastructure, petrochemical, transportation, and other process industries, as well as infrastructure, research, and engineering industries. Mistras Group, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.

About Spruce Power

Spruce Power Holding Corporation owns and operates distributed solar energy assets in the United States. The company provides subscription-based services for homeowners and businesses to own and maintain rooftop solar and battery storage. It offers its subscription-based services to approximately 75,000 customers. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.