Financial Contrast: Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) and Oshkosh (NYSE:OSK)

Oshkosh (NYSE:OSK) and Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.4% of Oshkosh shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.0% of Eastern shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Oshkosh shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.4% of Eastern shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Oshkosh and Eastern”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oshkosh	N/A	N/A	N/A	$8.74	15.36
Eastern	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.34	19.22

Oshkosh is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Eastern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Oshkosh and Eastern, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oshkosh	1	5	11	0	2.59
Eastern	0	2	0	0	2.00

Oshkosh currently has a consensus price target of $165.79, indicating a potential upside of 23.53%. Given Oshkosh’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Oshkosh is more favorable than Eastern.

Profitability

This table compares Oshkosh and Eastern’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oshkosh	N/A	N/A	N/A
Eastern	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Oshkosh beats Eastern on 5 of the 6 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oshkosh

Oshkosh Corporation provides purpose-built vehicles and equipment worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Access, Defense, and Vocational segment. Its Access Equipment segment design and manufacture aerial work platform and telehandlers for use in construction, industrial, and maintenance applications; offers financing and leasing solutions including rental fleet loans, leases, and floor plan and retail financing; and towing and recovery equipment, which includes carriers, wreckers, and rotators, as well as provides equipment installation and sale of chassis and service parts. The Defense segment engages in the manufacture and sale of heavy, medium, and light tactical wheeled vehicles and related services for department of defense. Its Vocational segment offers custom and commercial firefighting equipment, fire apparatus, and emergency vehicles, including pumpers, aerial platform, ladder and tiller trucks, and tankers; light, medium, and heavy-duty rescue vehicles; and wildland rough terrain response, bomb squad, hazardous materials control vehicles, mobile command and control centers, and other emergency response vehicles. Additionally, this segment produces and sells custom and commercial firefighting vehicles, as well as command vehicles, ARFF vehicles; design and manufacture refuse collection vehicles for waste services industry; front discharge concrete mixers for the concrete ready-mix industry; and field service vehicles and truck-mounted cranes for construction, equipment dealer, building supply, utility, tire service, railroad, and mining industries. Further, the company provides its products through direct sales representatives, dealers, and distributors. Oshkosh Corporation was formerly known as Oshkosh Truck Corporation. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

About Eastern

The Eastern Company designs, manufactures, and sells engineered solutions to industrial markets in the United States and internationally. The company offers turnkey returnable packaging solutions, which are used in the assembly processes of vehicles, aircraft, and durable goods, as well as in production processes of plastic packaging products, packaged consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals; designs and manufactures blow mold tools and injection blow mold tooling products, and 2-step stretch blow molds and related components for the stretch blow molding industry; and supplies blow molds and change parts to the food, beverage, healthcare, and chemical industries. It also provides rotary latches, compression latches, draw latches, hinges, camlocks, key switches, padlocks, and handles; and development and program management services for custom electromechanical and mechanical systems for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and customer applications. In addition, the company designs and manufactures proprietary vision technology for OEMs and aftermarket applications, as well as offers aftermarket components to the heavy- and medium-duty truck, motorhome, and bus markets. The Eastern Company was founded in 1858 and is based in Shelton, Connecticut.