Financial Survey: Bridger Aerospace Group (NASDAQ:BAER) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC)

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) and Bridger Aerospace Group (NASDAQ:BAER) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Northrop Grumman and Bridger Aerospace Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northrop Grumman	0	9	11	2	2.68
Bridger Aerospace Group	0	1	1	0	2.50

Northrop Grumman presently has a consensus price target of $688.79, indicating a potential downside of 0.32%. Bridger Aerospace Group has a consensus price target of $5.25, indicating a potential upside of 83.57%. Given Bridger Aerospace Group’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Bridger Aerospace Group is more favorable than Northrop Grumman.

Profitability

This table compares Northrop Grumman and Bridger Aerospace Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northrop Grumman	9.97%	25.57%	8.13%
Bridger Aerospace Group	4.96%	-1.91%	2.23%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.4% of Northrop Grumman shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.9% of Bridger Aerospace Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Northrop Grumman shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.5% of Bridger Aerospace Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Northrop Grumman and Bridger Aerospace Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Northrop Grumman	$41.95 billion	2.34	$4.18 billion	$29.13	23.72
Bridger Aerospace Group	$98.61 million	1.61	-$15.57 million	($0.52)	-5.50

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

Volatility and Risk

Northrop Grumman has a beta of 0.04, meaning that its share price is 96% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bridger Aerospace Group has a beta of 0.16, meaning that its share price is 84% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Northrop Grumman beats Bridger Aerospace Group on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation operates as an aerospace and defense technology company in the United States, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and internationally. The company’s Aeronautics Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, and sustains aircraft systems. This segment also offers unmanned autonomous aircraft systems, including high-altitude long-endurance strategic ISR systems and vertical take-off and landing tactical ISR systems; and strategic long-range strike aircraft, tactical fighter and air dominance aircraft, and airborne battle management and command and control systems. Its Defense Systems segment designs, develops, integrates, and produces tactical weapons and missile defense solutions, and provides sustainment, modernization, and training services for manned and unmanned aircraft and electronics systems. It also offers integrated, all-domain command, and control battle management systems, precision strike weapons; high speed air-breathing and hypersonic systems; high-performance gun systems, ammunition, precision munitions and advanced fuzes; aircraft and mission systems logistics support, sustainment, operations and modernization; and warfighter training services. The company’s Mission Systems segment offers command, control, communications and computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems; radar, electro-optical/infrared and acoustic sensors; electronic warfare systems; advanced communications and network systems; cyber solutions; intelligence processing systems; navigation; and maritime power, propulsion, and payload launch systems. Its Space Systems segment offers satellites, spacecraft systems, subsystems, sensors, and payloads; ground systems; missile defense systems and interceptors; launch vehicles and related propulsion systems; and strategic missiles. Northrop Grumman Corporation was founded in 1939 and is based in Falls Church, Virginia.

About Bridger Aerospace Group

Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc. provides aerial wildfire management, relief and suppression, and firefighting services to federal and state government agencies in the United States. It offers fire suppression services, such as direct fire suppression aerial firefighting support services for ground crew to drop large amounts of water quickly and directly on wildfires. The company also provides aerial surveillance services, including fire suppression aircraft over an incident and tactical coordination with the incident commander through its manned and unmanned aircraft. It operates an aircraft fleet of 18 planes. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Belgrade, Montana.