Head-To-Head Comparison: Freightcar America (NASDAQ:RAIL) vs. Pentair (NYSE:PNR)

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) and Freightcar America (NASDAQ:RAIL) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

Pentair has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freightcar America has a beta of 1.46, suggesting that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Pentair and Freightcar America’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pentair	16.24%	20.62%	11.44%
Freightcar America	-2.69%	-15.23%	2.90%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pentair and Freightcar America”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pentair	$4.18 billion	2.03	$653.80 million	$3.98	13.32
Freightcar America	$500.99 million	0.49	$38.10 million	($0.54)	-13.74

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Pentair and Freightcar America, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pentair	4	5	9	0	2.28
Freightcar America	1	1	0	0	1.50

Pentair currently has a consensus target price of $87.19, indicating a potential upside of 64.51%. Given Pentair’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Pentair is more favorable than Freightcar America.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.4% of Pentair shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.0% of Freightcar America shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Pentair shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.2% of Freightcar America shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Pentair beats Freightcar America on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pentair

Pentair plc provides various water solutions in the United States, Western Europe, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, Canada, and Japan. The company operates through three segments: Flow, Water Solutions, and Pool. The Flow segment designs, manufactures, and sells fluid treatment and pump products and systems, including pressure vessels, gas recovery solutions, membrane bioreactors, wastewater reuse systems and advanced membrane filtration, separation systems, water disposal pumps, water supply pumps, fluid transfer pumps, turbine pumps, solid handling pumps, and agricultural spray nozzles for fluid delivery, ion exchange, desalination, food and beverage, separation technologies in the oil and gas industry, residential and municipal wells, water treatment, wastewater solids handling, pressure boosting, circulation and transfer, fire suppression, flood control, agricultural irrigation, and crop spray in residential, commercial, and industrial markets. The Water Solutions segment provides commercial and residential water treatment products and systems, including pressure tanks, control valves, activated carbon products, commercial ice machines, conventional filtration products, and point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment systems, as well as installation and preventative services for use in residential whole home water filtration, drinking water filtration, and water softening solutions, as well as commercial total water management and filtration in foodservice operations. The Pool segment provides residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories comprising pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls, automatic cleaners, maintenance equipment, and pool accessories for applications in residential and commercial pool maintenance, pool repair, renovation, service, and construction and aquaculture solutions. Pentair plc was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Freightcar America

FreightCar America, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in design, manufacture, and sale of railcars and railcar components for the transportation of bulk commodities and containerized freight products in the United States and Mexico. It operates in two segments, Manufacturing and Parts. The company offers a range of railcars, including open top hoppers, mill gondola cars, intermodal and non-intermodal flat cars, coal cars; bulk commodity cars covered hopper cars, coil steel cars, boxcars, woodchip hoppers, aluminum vehicle carriers, and articulated bulk container railcars. It also sells used railcars; rebuilds, converts, and leases railcars; and sells forged, cast, and fabricated parts for various railcars. The company's customers primarily include shippers, railroads, and financial institutions. FreightCar America, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.