Critical Survey: Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) versus Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology (OTCMKTS:ZLIOY)

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology (OTCMKTS:ZLIOY) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Blue Bird and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blue Bird	0	2	6	0	2.75
Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology	0	0	0	0	N/A

Blue Bird presently has a consensus price target of $61.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.54%. Given Blue Bird’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Blue Bird is more favorable than Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Blue Bird and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blue Bird	$1.30 billion	1.10	$23.81 million	$2.47	17.96
Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.37	5.65

Blue Bird has higher revenue and earnings than Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology. Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blue Bird, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.6% of Blue Bird shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Blue Bird shares are owned by 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 Blue Bird and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blue Bird	7.65%	116.23%	23.50%
Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Blue Bird beats Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology on 10 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Blue Bird

Blue Bird Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, manufactures, and sells school buses in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Bus and Parts. It offers Type C, Type D, and specialty buses; and alternative power options through its propane powered, gasoline powered, compressed natural gas powered, and electric powered school buses, as well as diesel engines. The company also sells replacement bus parts; and provides financing services and extended warranties related to its products. Blue Bird Corporation sells its products through drop ship and a network of dealers, as well as directly to fleet operators, the United States government, and state governments; independent service centers; and maintains a parts distribution center. Blue Bird Corporation was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Macon, Georgia.

About Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology

Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. engages in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of construction and agricultural machinery in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company operates through three segments: New Digital, New Materials, and New Energy. It offers mini, small, medium, and large excavator; bulldozer, and skid steer and crawler loaders; truck, crawler, rough-terrain, all terrain, and telescopic crawler cranes; and luffing-jib tower and flat top tower cranes; and truck mounted pumps, truck mixer, trailer pumps, placing booms, city pumps, and batching pumps. The company provides wheeled tractors, combine and sugarcane harvesters, baler, and grain dryers; internal combustion and electric forklift; and micro, rough terrain, crawler, diesel and electric articulating, rough terrain electric articulating boom, spider, diesel telescopic boom, and electric telescopic boom scissor lifts, as well as DC/DC-Li, HD/HD-Li, and AC/AC-Li scissor series. In addition, the company mining drills, mining dumps trucks, mining excavators, and crushing and screening equipment; rotary drilling rigs, hydraulic plie pressing machines, hydraulic diaphragm wall grab, full rotary casting drill, and trench cuttler. The company was formerly known as Changsha Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd. and changed its name to Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in October 2011. Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 1992 and is based in Changsha, the People's Republic of China.