Critical Comparison: Viad (NYSE:VVI) vs. Bridger Aerospace Group (NASDAQ:BAER)

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

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Bridger Aerospace Group and Viad’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bridger Aerospace Group	$73.25 million	1.77	-$77.36 million	($1.75)	-1.57
Viad	$1.31 billion	0.55	$16.02 million	($0.38)	-89.89

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

48.9% of Bridger Aerospace Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.9% of Viad shares are owned by institutional investors. 70.7% of Bridger Aerospace Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Viad shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Bridger Aerospace Group and Viad, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bridger Aerospace Group	0	0	2	0	3.00
Viad	0	0	2	0	3.00

Bridger Aerospace Group currently has a consensus target price of $5.38, suggesting a potential upside of 95.45%. Viad has a consensus target price of $41.50, suggesting a potential upside of 21.49%. Given Bridger Aerospace Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Bridger Aerospace Group is more favorable than Viad.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bridger Aerospace Group	-73.43%	N/A	-19.72%
Viad	0.61%	12.70%	1.29%

Volatility and Risk

Bridger Aerospace Group has a beta of -0.14, meaning that its share price is 114% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Viad has a beta of 2.04, meaning that its share price is 104% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Viad beats Bridger Aerospace Group on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Viad

Viad Corp provides hospitality, leisure activities, experiential marketing, and live events in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates in three segments: Pursuit, Spiro, and GES Exhibitions. The Pursuit segment offers recreational attractions, hotels and lodges, food and beverage, retail, sightseeing, and ground transportation services. This segment consists of Banff Jasper Collection, the Alaska Collection, the Glacier Park Collection, FlyOver, and Sky Lagoon. The Spiro segment operates as an experiential marketing agency that partners with brands around the world to manage and elevate their global experiential marketing activities. The GES Exhibition segment engages as an exhibition services company that partners with exhibition and conference organizers as a full-service provider of strategic and logistics solutions to manage the complexity of their shows. It serves event organizers and corporate brand marketers; and tour operators, tour wholesalers, destination management companies, and retail travel agencies. Viad Corp was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.