Reviewing ITT (NYSE:ITT) & Marubeni (OTCMKTS:MARUY)

ITT (NYSE:ITT) and Marubeni (OTCMKTS:MARUY) are both large-cap multi-sector conglomerates companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares ITT and Marubeni’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ITT	12.39%	17.74%	10.12%
Marubeni	6.60%	13.45%	5.72%

Dividends

ITT pays an annual dividend of $1.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Marubeni pays an annual dividend of $5.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. ITT pays out 25.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Marubeni pays out 22.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. ITT has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Marubeni is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.6% of ITT shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of Marubeni shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of ITT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ITT and Marubeni”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ITT	$3.94 billion	4.93	$488.00 million	$6.11	35.55
Marubeni	$54.91 billion	1.13	$3.61 billion	$22.03	17.09

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

Volatility & Risk

ITT has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Marubeni has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for ITT and Marubeni, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ITT	0	1	10	0	2.91
Marubeni	0	2	0	0	2.00

ITT presently has a consensus target price of $225.55, indicating a potential upside of 3.84%. Given ITT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe ITT is more favorable than Marubeni.

Summary

ITT beats Marubeni on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ITT

ITT Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells engineered critical components and customized technology solutions for the transportation, industrial, and energy markets in the United States and internationally. The Motion Technologies segment manufactures brake pads, shims, shock absorbers, and energy absorption components; and sealing technologies primarily for the transportation industry, including passenger cars, trucks, light- and heavy-duty commercial and military vehicles, buses, and trains. This segment sells its products under ITT Friction Technologies, KONI, Wolverine Advanced Materials, Axtone, Novitek, and GALT. brand names. The Industrial Process segment provides industrial pumps, valves, and plant optimization and remote monitoring systems and services; and aftermarket solutions, such as replacement parts and services. It serves various customers in industries, such as chemical, energy, mining, and other industrial process markets. This segment sells its products under Goulds Pumps, Bornemann, Engineered Valves, PRO Services, C'treat, i-ALERT, Rheinhütte Pumpen, and Habonim brand names. The Connect & Control Technologies segment designs and manufactures a range of engineered connectors and specialized products for critical applications supporting various markets, including aerospace and defense, industrial, transportation, medical, and energy. This segment provides connector products, such as circular, rectangular, radio frequency, fiber optic, D-sub miniature, micro-miniature, and cable assemblies; and control products consist of highly engineered actuation, flow control, energy absorption, environmental control, and composite component solutions for the aerospace, defense, and industrial markets under Cannon, VEAM, BIW Connector Systems, Aerospace Controls, Enidine, Compact Automation, Neo-Dyn Process Controls, Conoflow, and Micro-Mode brand names. The company was incorporated in 1920 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

About Marubeni

Marubeni Corporation engages in various business activities. It manufactures, wholesales, and retails apparel, footwear, home furnishing and sport goods, industrial and textile materials, tire and rubber materials, and household and nursing care products; develops uranium, nuclear fuel cycle, iron ore, coking coal, copper mines, and related equipment and services; smelts and refines aluminum and magnesium; leases temporary steel construction materials; explores for, develops, and produces oil and gas; manages infrastructure funds; and develops and manages real estate. The company also offers insurance, technical, ICT, and logistic services; agri-inputs; fertilizer and crop protection product contracting services; crop protection product formulations; wood chips, biomass fuels, pulp and waste papers, paper, paperboards, sanitary, and building and construction materials; engineering, procurement, and construction services; and operation and maintenance services. It trades in fertilizers, dairy, agricultural, and marine products; sugar, processed food, beverages raw materials, and commercial use food materials; grains, oilseeds, feed ingredients, compound feeds, fresh and processed meat, petrochemicals, plastics, salts, chlor-alkalis, life science products, electronic materials, fertilizer materials, and inorganic mineral resources and chemicals; steelmaking raw materials, ferroalloys, nonferrous metals, and steel products; cement and ingots related materials; and petroleum and LPG. The company engages in infrastructure; water; automotive finance; power generation; power service and retail; natural gas; hydrogen; and fuel ammonia businesses. It owns, purchases, operates, leases, sells, and charters aerospace and ship products; leases refrigerated trailers, commercial vehicles, and freight cars; and sells, trades in, leases, finances, and services construction and industrial machinery, and mobility products. The company was founded in 1858 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.