Analyzing Virco Manufacturing (NASDAQ:VIRC) & Knightscope (NASDAQ:KSCP)

Virco Manufacturing (NASDAQ:VIRC) and Knightscope (NASDAQ:KSCP) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Virco Manufacturing has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its stock price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Knightscope has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

31.0% of Virco Manufacturing shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.6% of Knightscope shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.9% of Virco Manufacturing shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Knightscope shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Virco Manufacturing and Knightscope’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Virco Manufacturing	-1.31%	-2.32%	-1.39%
Knightscope	-217.29%	-152.20%	-90.99%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Virco Manufacturing and Knightscope, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Virco Manufacturing	1	1	0	0	1.50
Knightscope	1	0	3	0	2.50

Knightscope has a consensus target price of $12.67, indicating a potential upside of 1,943.01%. Given Knightscope’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Knightscope is more favorable than Virco Manufacturing.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Virco Manufacturing and Knightscope”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Virco Manufacturing	$199.65 million	0.51	$2.57 million	($0.16)	-40.50
Knightscope	$11.34 million	1.28	-$33.81 million	($3.43)	-0.18

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

Summary

Virco Manufacturing beats Knightscope on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Virco Manufacturing

Virco Mfg. Corporation engages in the design, production, and distribution of furniture in the United States and Canada. The company offers seating products, including 4-leg chairs, cantilever chairs, mobile task chairs and lab stools, tablet armchairs, steel-frame and floor rockers, series stools, hard plastic seating, folding and upholstered stack chairs, and plastic stack and upholstered ergonomic chairs. It also provides activity, butcher block, folding, office, technology, and mobile tables; desks and workstations, and instructor media stations and towers; chair desks and combo units, tablet arm and caster units, mobile workstations, student desks, and returns and credenzas; and computer furniture solutions. In addition, the company provides administrative office furniture, including desks, returns, bookcases, and other items, as well as steel storage cabinets, wardrobe tower cabinets, file credenzas, and mobile pedestals; laboratory furniture comprising steel-based science tables, table bases, lab stools, and wood-frame science tables; mobile furniture, such as mobile tables, mobile cabinets, and mobile chairs for school settings and offices; and handling and storage equipment, and stackable storage trucks. It serves public and private educational institutions, charter schools, convention centers and arenas, hospitality providers, government facilities, and places of worship through its sales and support teams, and dealers' network. Virco Mfg. Corporation was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Torrance, California.

About Knightscope

Knightscope, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, deploys, and supports autonomous security robots (ASR) in the United States. Its products include K3 and K5 ASRs designed to roam a geo-fenced area autonomously by utilizing numerous sensors and lasers, either on a random basis or based on a particular patrolling algorithm to navigate around people, vehicles, and objects in dynamic indoor or outdoor environments; K1, an ASR for used in indoors or outdoors and at ingress/egress points for both people and vehicles; and K7, a multi-terrain ASR. The company also develops and operates the Knightscope security operations center (KSOC), a browser-based interface, which allows real-time data access service to its clients for alert of an abnormal event; and Knightscope network operations center (KNOC), a custom set of tools that enables it to manage and monitor the network of ASRs with alerts related to critical indicators and statistics, including charging, software, navigation, and temperatures, as well as to execute over-the-air software upgrades, patches, and other related items. In addition, it offers Knightscope+, a virtual monitoring and response solution that provides an alternative for client sites. The company serves airports, commercial real estate, corporate campus, homeowner associations, hotels, universities, municipalities, rail, healthcare, public parks, schools, casinos, corporations, logistics, manufacturing, law enforcement, Parking areas, municipalities, universities, and property management companies, as well as the U.S. federal government. Knightscope, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.