Financial Contrast: VinFast Auto (NASDAQ:VFS) & Lightning eMotors (NYSE:ZEV)

Lightning eMotors (NYSE:ZEV) and VinFast Auto (NASDAQ:VFS) are both auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Lightning eMotors has a beta of 2.69, meaning that its share price is 169% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VinFast Auto has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

25.2% of Lightning eMotors shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Lightning eMotors shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.2% of VinFast Auto shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Lightning eMotors and VinFast Auto’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lightning eMotors	$24.69 million	0.02	$15.17 million	($11.19)	-0.01
VinFast Auto	$1.20 billion	N/A	-$2.40 billion	($0.82)	-4.76

Lightning eMotors has higher earnings, but lower revenue than VinFast Auto. VinFast Auto is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lightning eMotors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Lightning eMotors and VinFast Auto, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lightning eMotors	0	0	0	0	N/A
VinFast Auto	0	0	4	0	3.00

VinFast Auto has a consensus target price of $9.75, suggesting a potential upside of 150.00%. Given VinFast Auto’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe VinFast Auto is more favorable than Lightning eMotors.

Profitability

This table compares Lightning eMotors and VinFast Auto’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lightning eMotors	-221.51%	-221.78%	-69.89%
VinFast Auto	N/A	N/A	-44.67%

Summary

VinFast Auto beats Lightning eMotors on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lightning eMotors

Lightning eMotors, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells zero-emission commercial fleet vehicles and powertrains to commercial fleets, large enterprises, original equipment manufacturers, and governments in the United States. It offers zero-emission class 3 to 7 commercial electric and fuel cell vehicles. The company's vehicles comprise cargo and passenger vehicles, school buses, ambulances, shuttle buses, work trucks, transit buses, and motorcoaches. It also offers charging systems and charging infrastructure solutions. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in Loveland, Colorado.

About VinFast Auto

VinFast Auto Ltd. engages in the design and manufacture of electric vehicles (EV), e-scooters, and e-buses in Vietnam, Canada, and the United States. The company operates through three segments: Automobiles, E-scooter, and Spare Parts & Aftermarket Services. The Automobiles segment offers design, development, manufacturing, and sale of cars and electric buses, and related battery lease and battery charging services for electric cars and buses. The E-scooter segment provides design, development, manufacturing, and sales of e-scooters, and related battery lease and battery charging service for e-scooters. The Spare Parts, and Aftermarket Services segment engages in sale of spare parts and aftermarket services for automobiles and e-scooters. VinFast Auto Ltd. is based in Hai Phong City, Vietnam. VinFast Auto Ltd. is a subsidiary of Vingroup Joint Stock Company.