Head to Head Review: Astronics (OTCMKTS:ATROB) vs. Thales (OTCMKTS:THLEF)

Astronics (OTCMKTS:ATROB) and Thales (OTCMKTS:THLEF) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Astronics and Thales”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Astronics	$689.21 million	0.90	-$26.42 million	($0.77)	-23.04
Thales	N/A	N/A	N/A	$4.07	40.45

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

20.8% of Thales shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.0% of Astronics shares are owned by 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 recent ratings and recommmendations for Astronics and Thales, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Astronics	0	0	0	0	N/A
Thales	0	0	0	0	N/A

Profitability

This table compares Astronics and Thales’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Astronics	-1.57%	-0.31%	-0.12%
Thales	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Thales beats Astronics on 6 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Astronics

Astronics Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures products for the aerospace, defense, and electronics industries in the United States, rest of North America, Asia, Europe, South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace and Test Systems. The Aerospace segment offers lighting and safety systems, electrical power generation systems, distribution and seat motions systems, aircraft structures, avionics products, system certification, and other products. This segment serves airframe manufacturers (OEM) that build aircraft for the commercial, military, and general aviation markets; suppliers to OEMs; and aircraft operators, such as airlines; suppliers to the aircraft operators; and branches of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Test Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, and maintains automated test systems that support the aerospace and defense, and mass transit industries, as well as training and simulation devices for commercial and military applications. It serves OEMs and prime government contractors for electronics and military products. Astronics Corporation was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in East Aurora, New York.

About Thales

Thales S.A. provides various solutions in the defence and security, aerospace and space, digital identity and security, and transport markets worldwide. It operates through Aerospace, Defence & Security, Digital Identity & Security, and Ground Transportation Systems business segments. The company offers communications, command, and control systems; mission services and support; protection and mission/combat systems; surveillance, detection, and intelligence systems; training and simulation solutions for air, land, naval, and joint forces; and digital identity and security solutions. It also provides air traffic management solutions; flight decks and avionics equipment and functions; in-flight entertainment, connectivity, and services; drone solutions; aerospace trading solutions; navigation solutions; support and services for civil aviation; and connectivity solutions. In addition, the company designs, operates, and delivers satellite-based systems for telecommunications, navigation, earth observation, environmental management, exploration, and science and orbital infrastructures; signaling, communications and supervision, and fare collection management systems and related services; cybersecurity and railway digitalization systems; and main line rail, and urban and intermodal mobility solutions. Further, it provides solutions for various markets and applications, including radiology, radio frequency, microwave sources, training and simulation solutions, lasers, and microelectronics solutions for science, industry, space, defense, automotive, railways, and energy conversion platforms. The company was formerly known as Thomson-CSF and changed its name to Thales S.A. in 2000. Thales S.A. was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Meudon, France.