Financial Comparison: AIRO Group (NASDAQ:AIRO) vs. Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW)

AIRO Group (NASDAQ:AIRO) and Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.7% of Curtiss-Wright shares are held by institutional investors. 22.9% of AIRO Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Curtiss-Wright shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

AIRO Group has a beta of 2.2, meaning that its stock price is 120% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Curtiss-Wright has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for AIRO Group and Curtiss-Wright, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AIRO Group	1	2	3	0	2.33
Curtiss-Wright	0	3	4	0	2.57

AIRO Group currently has a consensus price target of $16.50, suggesting a potential upside of 193.86%. Curtiss-Wright has a consensus price target of $651.38, suggesting a potential upside of 33.79%. Given AIRO Group’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe AIRO Group is more favorable than Curtiss-Wright.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AIRO Group and Curtiss-Wright”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AIRO Group	$90.91 million	1.95	-$4.10 million	($0.83)	-6.77
Curtiss-Wright	$3.50 billion	5.05	$484.23 million	$14.99	32.48

Curtiss-Wright has higher revenue and earnings than AIRO Group. AIRO Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Curtiss-Wright, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares AIRO Group and Curtiss-Wright’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AIRO Group	-23.86%	-3.48%	-3.32%
Curtiss-Wright	14.86%	21.08%	10.38%

Summary

Curtiss-Wright beats AIRO Group on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AIRO Group

We are a technologically differentiated aerospace, autonomy, and air mobility platform targeting 21st century aerospace and defense opportunities. We leverage decades of industry expertise and connections across the drone, aviation, and avionics markets to provide leading solutions to the aerospace and defense market. We offer connected and diversified solutions providing operational synergies across our segments and are powered by an international footprint as well as supplier and public sector relationships. Supported by complementary and innovative technologies, we believe we bring a unique value proposition to the market and are well-positioned to become a differentiated leader in the industry. Our business is organized into four operating segments, each of which represents a critical growth vector in the aerospace and defense market: Drones, Avionics, Training, and Electric Air Mobility. These four segments collectively target a combined total addressable market estimated to be over $315.4 billion by 2030. — Drones. The Drones segment develops, manufactures, and sells drones and will provide drone services, such as DaaS, for military and commercial end users. Our military drones are sold through our Sky-Watch brand, which is a key supplier to European NATO countries. A critical point of differentiation lies in our drones’ ability to perform in a GPS-denied environment, which is a technology application relevant for both military and commercial end markets. Avionics. The Avionics segment develops, manufactures, and sells avionics for military and general aviation aircraft, drones, and eVTOLs. Our advanced avionics products include flight displays, Connected Panels, and GPS/GNSS sensors, all of which have been installed on legacy military aircraft and general aviation platforms. We sell our advanced avionics through our Aspen Avionics brand, which is well-recognized in the general aviation aftermarket sector with over 20 years of operating history and long-term customer loyalty for our value proposition. We also serve as an avionics supplier for OEMs, including Robinson Helicopters, Pilatus, and Honeywell. We believe our avionics solutions have a considerable market opportunity as general aviation fleets continue to age, with owners and operators seeking to upgrade the avionics technology on their aircraft. Training. The Training segment currently provides military pilot training and will provide commercial pilot training in the future. We offer professional training and consulting services to the U.S. military, select NATO countries, and other U.S. allies under our CDI brand. These offerings include adversary air, close air support, ISR aircraft leasing, pilot training ground liaison services, and JTAC, as well as full joint theatre ISR and simulated ground strike training. We work closely with special military forces such as SEAL teams, the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center, and USAF Air Combat Command, and are a mandated recipient on a $5.7 billion IDIQ contract. Our personnel’s top security clearances and established relationships at the Pentagon provide us with a differentiated ability to bid on mandates. We also plan to offer commercial pilot training and plan to expand our non-military capabilities in response to the global pilot shortage. Electric Air Mobility. The Electric Air Mobility segment is developing a rotorcraft eVTOL for cargo and passenger use through our Jaunt brand for fixed route flights, on-demand trips, and cargo operations. Our research and development (“R&D”) efforts are focused on developing a cargo eVTOL platform, which will be a scaled-down version of our passenger eVTOL platform, and will target the attractive middle mile delivery cargo market. Meanwhile, our long-term R&D efforts are focused on developing a full-scale multi-role eVTOL platform, which will be able to serve both the cargo and passenger markets. We plan to certify our eVTOLs through existing CAR 529 Rotorcraft standards, with our platform including the best attributes of both rotary and fixed wing aircraft. Our patented compound rotorcraft technology, a core point of technological differentiation that will underpin our cargo eVTOL’s commercial capability, has over 300 piloted flight hours on multiple Jaunt demonstrator aircraft. We believe the range and payload capabilities driven by this technology uniquely position us to provide a compelling commercial solution for the eVTOL cargo market. Once developed and certified, we expect our cargo eVTOL program will serve as the foundation of our commercialization efforts, with passenger applications serving as a longer-term secondary initiative. Our principal executive offices are located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

About Curtiss-Wright

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides engineered products, solutions, and services mainly to aerospace and defense, commercial power, process, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics, and Naval & Power. The Aerospace & Industrial segment offers industrial and specialty vehicle products, such as power management electronics, traction inverters, transmission shifters, and control systems; sensors, controls, and electro-mechanical actuation components used on commercial and military aircraft; and surface technology services including shot peening, laser peening, and engineered coatings. The Defense Electronics segment provides commercial off-the-shelf embedded computing board-level modules and processing equipment, data acquisition and flight test instrumentation equipment, integrated subsystems, instrumentation and control systems, tactical communications solutions; and electronic stabilization products, and weapons handling systems; avionics and electronics; flight test equipment; and aircraft data management solutions. The Naval & Power segment offers main coolant pumps, power-dense compact motors, generators, steam turbines, valves, and secondary propulsion systems; energy absorbers, retractable hook cable systems, net-stanchion systems and mobile systems to support fixed land-based arresting systems; hardware, valves, fastening systems, specialized containment doors, airlock hatches, and spent fuel management products; reactor coolant pumps and control rod drive mechanisms for commercial nuclear power plants, as well as various nuclear reactor technologies. This segment furnishes severe-service valve technologies and services, heat exchanger repair, and piping test and isolation products, and offers ship repair and maintenance for the U.S. navy. Curtiss-Wright Corporation was incorporated in 1929 and is headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina.