Head to Head Survey: CVD Equipment (NASDAQ:CVV) & Kadant (NYSE:KAI)

CVD Equipment (NASDAQ:CVV) and Kadant (NYSE:KAI) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CVD Equipment and Kadant”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CVD Equipment	$25.79 million	1.91	-$1.59 million	($0.51)	-13.92
Kadant	$1.05 billion	3.38	$101.97 million	$8.77	34.29

Kadant has higher revenue and earnings than CVD Equipment. CVD Equipment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kadant, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

CVD Equipment has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kadant has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for CVD Equipment and Kadant, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CVD Equipment	1	0	0	0	1.00
Kadant	0	3	1	0	2.25

Kadant has a consensus target price of $341.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.55%. Given Kadant’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Kadant is more favorable than CVD Equipment.

Profitability

This table compares CVD Equipment and Kadant’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CVD Equipment	-18.68%	-14.18%	-12.37%
Kadant	9.45%	12.13%	7.33%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

31.6% of CVD Equipment shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Kadant shares are held by institutional investors. 28.7% of CVD Equipment shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Kadant shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Kadant beats CVD Equipment on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CVD Equipment

CVD Equipment Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells equipment to develop and manufacture materials and coatings in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: CVD Equipment, Stainless Design Concepts, and CVD Materials. The CVD Equipment segment offers chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor transport, and thermal process equipment under the FirstNano brand for various markets, such as high power electronics, aerospace advanced materials for gas turbine jet engines, and nanomaterials used in batteries, as well as semiconductors, LEDs, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, solar cells, and other industrial and research applications. The Stainless Design Concepts segment provides ultra-high purity gas and chemical delivery control systems, including gas cylinder storage cabinets, custom gas and chemical delivery systems, gas and liquid valve manifold boxes, and gas isolation boxes for semiconductor fabrication processes, aerospace, solar cells, LEDs, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, and industrial applications. The CVD Materials segment offers products related to advanced materials and coatings, such as MesoPlasma printing services and products comprising heaters, antennas, and sensors to aerospace, satellite, power generation, defense, and other markets. The company also provides annealing, diffusion, and low pressure chemical vapor deposition furnaces; and standard and custom fabricated quartz-ware used in its equipment and other customer tools. The company was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Central Islip, New York.

About Kadant

Kadant Inc. supplies technologies and engineered systems worldwide. It operates in three segments: Flow Control, Industrial Processing, and Material Handling. The Flow Control segment develops, manufactures, and markets fluid-handling systems and equipment, such as rotary joints, syphons, turbulator bars, expansion joints, and engineered steam and condensate systems; and doctoring, cleaning, and filtration systems and related consumables consisting of doctor systems and holders, doctor blades, cleaning shower and fabric-conditioning systems, forming systems and wear surfaces, and water-filtration systems. The Industrial Processing segment develops, manufactures, and markets ring and rotary debarkers, stranders, chippers, engineered knife systems, industrial automation and control, recycling and approach flow systems, and virgin pulping process equipment for use in the packaging, tissue, wood products, and alternative fuel industries. The Material Handling segment offers conveying and vibratory equipment, and baling products; and manufactures and sells biodegradable absorbent granules for carriers in agricultural, home lawn and garden, professional lawn, turf, and ornamental applications, as well as for oil and grease absorption. The company markets and sells its products, services, and systems through direct sales, independent sales agents, and distributors. The company was formerly known as Thermo Fibertek, Inc. and changed its name to Kadant Inc. in July 2001. Kadant Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts.