Northern Technologies International (NASDAQ:NTIC) & Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) Head-To-Head Survey

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) and Northern Technologies International (NASDAQ:NTIC) are both materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Hawkins and Northern Technologies International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hawkins	1	2	1	0	2.00
Northern Technologies International	1	1	0	0	1.50

Hawkins presently has a consensus price target of $171.00, indicating a potential upside of 32.53%. Given Hawkins’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Hawkins is more favorable than Northern Technologies International.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Hawkins and Northern Technologies International”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hawkins	$1.08 billion	2.49	$81.55 million	$3.86	33.43
Northern Technologies International	$84.24 million	0.88	$20,000.00	($0.12)	-65.00

Hawkins has higher revenue and earnings than Northern Technologies International. Northern Technologies International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hawkins, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Hawkins and Northern Technologies International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hawkins	7.29%	15.42%	8.22%
Northern Technologies International	-1.26%	-0.45%	-0.33%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

69.7% of Hawkins shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.9% of Northern Technologies International shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Hawkins shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 24.9% of Northern Technologies International shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Hawkins has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northern Technologies International has a beta of 0.18, indicating that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Hawkins beats Northern Technologies International on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hawkins

Hawkins, Inc. operates as a specialty chemical and ingredients company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Industrial, Water Treatment, and Health and Nutrition. The Industrial segment offers industrial chemicals, products, and services to agriculture, chemical processing, electronics, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and plating industries. This segment manufactures sodium hypochlorite and agricultural products, as well as various food-grade and pharmaceutical products, such as liquid phosphates, lactates, other blended products, and agricultural products; and receives, stores, and distributes various chemicals comprising liquid caustic soda, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, urea, phosphoric acid, aqua ammonia, and potassium hydroxide. It also repackages water treatment chemicals and bulk industrial chemicals; and performs custom blending of chemicals. The Water Treatment segment provides chemicals, products, equipment, services, and solutions for potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater, industrial process water, non-residential swimming pool water, and agriculture water. The Health and Nutrition segment offers ingredient distribution, processing, and formulation solutions to manufacturers of nutraceutical, functional food and beverage, personal care, dietary supplement and other nutritional food, and health and wellness products. Its products portfolio includes minerals, vitamins and amino acids, excipients, joint products, botanicals and herbs, sweeteners, and enzymes. Hawkins, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota.

About Northern Technologies International

Northern Technologies International Corporation develops and markets rust and corrosion inhibiting solutions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and internationally. It offers rust and corrosion inhibiting products, such as plastic and paper packaging, liquids, coatings, rust removers, cleaners, diffusers, and engineered solutions designed for the oil and gas industry under the ZERUST brand. The company provides a portfolio of bio-based and certified compostable polymer resin compounds and finished products under the Natur-Tec brand. In addition, it offers on-site and technical consulting for rust and corrosion prevention issues. It sells its products and services to automotive, electronics, electrical, mechanical, military, retail consumer, and oil and gas markets through direct sales force, network of independent distributors, agents, manufacturer's sales representatives, and strategic partners. The company was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Circle Pines, Minnesota.