Critical Survey: DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ:DXPE) versus Morgan Advanced Materials (OTCMKTS:MCRUF)

DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ:DXPE) and Morgan Advanced Materials (OTCMKTS:MCRUF) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares DXP Enterprises and Morgan Advanced Materials”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DXP Enterprises	$2.02 billion	1.00	$88.68 million	$5.38	24.25
Morgan Advanced Materials	$1.31 billion	N/A	$27.82 million	N/A	N/A

DXP Enterprises has higher revenue and earnings than Morgan Advanced Materials.

Profitability

This table compares DXP Enterprises and Morgan Advanced Materials’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DXP Enterprises	4.40%	18.83%	6.04%
Morgan Advanced Materials	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

DXP Enterprises has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Morgan Advanced Materials has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

74.8% of DXP Enterprises shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.7% of DXP Enterprises shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for DXP Enterprises and Morgan Advanced Materials, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DXP Enterprises	0	0	2	0	3.00
Morgan Advanced Materials	0	2	0	0	2.00

DXP Enterprises presently has a consensus price target of $154.00, indicating a potential upside of 18.04%. Given DXP Enterprises’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe DXP Enterprises is more favorable than Morgan Advanced Materials.

Summary

DXP Enterprises beats Morgan Advanced Materials on 11 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DXP Enterprises

DXP Enterprises, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in distributing maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) products, equipment, and services in the United States and Canada. It operates through three segments: Service Centers (SC), Supply Chain Services (SCS), and Innovative Pumping Solutions (IPS). The SC segment offers MRO products, equipment, and integrated services, including technical expertise and logistics services. It offers a range of MRO products in the rotating equipment, bearing, power transmission, hose, fluid power, metal working, fastener, industrial supply, safety products, and safety services categories. This segment serves customers in the oil and gas, food and beverage, petrochemical, transportation, other general industrial, mining, construction, chemical, municipal, agriculture, and pulp and paper industries. The SCS segment manages procurement and inventory vinventory optimization and management, storeroom management, transaction consolidation and control, vendor oversight and procurement cost optimization, productivity improvement, and customized reporting services. Its programs include SmartAgreement, a procurement solution for various MRO categories; SmartBuy, an on-site or centralized MRO procurement solution; SmartSource, an on-site procurement and storeroom management solution; SmartStore, an e-Catalog solution; SmartVend, an industrial dispensing solution; and SmartServ, an integrated service pump solution. The IPS segment fabricates and assembles custom-made pump packages; remanufactures pumps; and manufactures branded private label pumps. DXP Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1908 and is based in Houston, Texas.

About Morgan Advanced Materials

Morgan Advanced Materials plc operates as a materials science and application engineering company primarily the United Kingdom. It serves customers in the industrial, transportation, petrochemical and chemical, energy, semiconductor and electronics, healthcare, and security and defense markets. The company was formerly known as The Morgan Crucible Company plc and changed its name to Morgan Advanced Materials plc in March 2013. Morgan Advanced Materials plc was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Windsor, the United Kingdom.