Head-To-Head Survey: Loar (NYSE:LOAR) versus Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB)

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) and Loar (NYSE:LOAR) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Rocket Lab and Loar, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rocket Lab	1	5	7	2	2.67
Loar	0	1	4	1	3.00

Rocket Lab presently has a consensus price target of $58.17, indicating a potential upside of 1.74%. Loar has a consensus price target of $94.75, indicating a potential upside of 37.94%. Given Loar’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Loar is more favorable than Rocket Lab.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

71.8% of Rocket Lab shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.9% of Rocket Lab shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 22.6% of Loar shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Rocket Lab has a beta of 2.2, meaning that its share price is 120% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Loar has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Rocket Lab and Loar’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rocket Lab	-35.64%	-27.26%	-12.21%
Loar	13.33%	6.45%	4.85%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Rocket Lab and Loar”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rocket Lab	$436.21 million	70.01	-$190.18 million	($0.38)	-150.45
Loar	$402.82 million	15.96	$22.23 million	$0.66	104.07

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

Summary

Loar beats Rocket Lab on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab USA, Inc., a space company, provides launch services and space systems solutions for the space and defense industries. The company provides launch services, spacecraft design services, spacecraft components, spacecraft manufacturing, and other spacecraft and on-orbit management solutions; and constellation management services, as well as designs and manufactures small and medium-class rockets. It also designs, manufactures, and sells Electron, a reusable orbital-class small rocket; and the Photon satellite platforms, as well as developing the Neutron 8-ton payload class launch vehicle; conducts remote launch activities; and designs and manufactures a range of components and subsystems for the Photon family of spacecraft and broader merchant spacecraft components. The company serves commercial, aerospace prime contractors, and government customers. Rocket Lab USA, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.

About Loar

Loar Holdings Inc., through its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets aerospace and defense components for aircraft, and aerospace and defense systems in the United States and internationally. It offers products in various categories, which include airframe components, structural components, avionics, composites, braking system components, de-ice and ice protection, electro-mechanical, engineered materials, flight controls, fluid and motion controls, environmental, metal forming, molded components, and restraints and safety devices. The company also provides auto throttles, lap-belt airbags, two-and three-point seat belts, water purification systems, fire barriers, polyimide washers and bushings, latches, hold-open and tie rods, temperature and fluid sensors and switches, carbon and metallic brake discs, fluid and pneumatic-based ice protection, RAM air components, sealing solutions, actuation devices, and others. It primarily serves commercial, business jet and general aviation, and defense markets. Loar Holdings Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in White Plains, New York.