Critical Survey: THK (OTCMKTS:THKLY) vs. Art’s-Way Manufacturing (NASDAQ:ARTW)

Art’s-Way Manufacturing (NASDAQ:ARTW) and THK (OTCMKTS:THKLY) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Art’s-Way Manufacturing and THK”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	$25.99 million	0.64	$1.03 million	($0.01)	-321.00
THK	$1.61 billion	2.96	-$468.27 million	$0.30	66.67

Art’s-Way Manufacturing has higher earnings, but lower revenue than THK. Art’s-Way Manufacturing is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than THK, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Art’s-Way Manufacturing and THK’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	-0.08%	-0.16%	-0.10%
THK	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Art’s-Way Manufacturing and THK, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	1	0	0	0	1.00
THK	0	1	0	0	2.00

Insider and Institutional Ownership

2.9% of Art’s-Way Manufacturing shares are owned by institutional investors. 51.5% of Art’s-Way Manufacturing shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Art’s-Way Manufacturing has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, THK has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Art’s-Way Manufacturing pays an annual dividend of $0.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. THK pays an annual dividend of $0.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Art’s-Way Manufacturing pays out -500.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. THK pays out 123.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

THK beats Art’s-Way Manufacturing on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Art’s-Way Manufacturing

Art’s-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc. manufactures and distributes farm equipment products. It operates through the Agricultural Products, and Modular Buildings segments. The Agricultural Products segment manufactures a variety of specialized farm machinery under its own label including portable and stationary animal feed processing equipment and related attachments used to mill and mix feed grains into custom animal feed rations, a line of forage equipment consisting of forage boxes, bale processors, running gear, and dump boxes, a line of manure spreaders, sugar beet harvesting equipment, and a line of dirt work equipment. The Modular Buildings segment produces and sells modular buildings, which are custom designed to meet the specific research needs of its customers. It also provides services relating to the design, manufacturing, delivery, installation and renting of the building units that it produces. The company was founded by Arthur Luscombe in 1956 and is headquartered in Armstrong, IA.

About THK

THK Co., Ltd. engages in the manufacture and sale of mechanical components worldwide. The company provides linear motion (LM) guides, ball screws, ball splines, LM guide actuators, cross roller rings/ double row angular contact ring, electric actuators, linear motor actuators, cam followers, roller followers, linear bushes, LM strokes, slide packs, slide rails, cross roller guides and tables, linear ball slides, LM and flat rollers, spline nuts, screw nuts, change nuts, precision linear packs, link balls, rod ends, spherical plain bearings, lubrication accessories, and seismic isolation products. Its products are used in various applications, including machine tools, general industrial machinery, precision instruments, semiconductor and LCD manufacturing equipment, industrial robots, electronic devices, and transport systems, as well as in construction, aerospace, medical and assistive, and other manufacturing industries. The company was incorporated in 1946 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.