Contrasting Jerash Holdings (US) (NASDAQ:JRSH) & Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FORD)

Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FORD) and Jerash Holdings (US) (NASDAQ:JRSH) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Forward Industries and Jerash Holdings (US), as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Forward Industries	1	0	0	0	1.00
Jerash Holdings (US)	0	1	1	0	2.50

Jerash Holdings (US) has a consensus target price of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 32.89%. Given Jerash Holdings (US)’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Jerash Holdings (US) is more favorable than Forward Industries.

Risk & Volatility

Forward Industries has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Jerash Holdings (US) has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Forward Industries and Jerash Holdings (US)’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Forward Industries	-14.52%	-1,522.78%	-44.33%
Jerash Holdings (US)	0.45%	1.03%	0.79%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

3.4% of Jerash Holdings (US) shares are held by institutional investors. 7.0% of Forward Industries shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 42.7% of Jerash Holdings (US) shares are held 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Forward Industries and Jerash Holdings (US)”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Forward Industries	$25.19 million	31.97	-$1.95 million	($4.46)	-2.09
Jerash Holdings (US)	$145.81 million	0.26	-$850,000.00	$0.06	50.17

Jerash Holdings (US) has higher revenue and earnings than Forward Industries. Forward Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Jerash Holdings (US), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Jerash Holdings (US) beats Forward Industries on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Forward Industries

Forward Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sources, markets, and distributes carry and protective solutions. The company operates in two segments: OEM Distribution and Design. The OEM Distribution segment sources and distributes carrying cases and other accessories for medical monitoring and diagnostic kits; and various other portable electronic and non-electronic products, such as sporting and recreational products, bar code scanners, GPS location devices, tablets, and firearms. The Design segment provides hardware and software product design and engineering services. The company sells its products to original equipment manufacturers in the United States, China, Germany, Poland, and internationally. Forward Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is based in Hauppauge, New York.

About Jerash Holdings (US)

Jerash Holdings (US), Inc., through its subsidiaries, manufactures and exports customized and ready-made sport and outerwear. The company offers t-shirts; jackets and pullover; pants and shorts; crew neck, polo shirts, and tank tops made from knitted fabric, as well as personal protective equipment. It serves various brand-name retailers in the United States, Hong Kong, Jordan, and internationally. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Fairfield, New Jersey.