Head-To-Head Comparison: Assa Abloy (OTCMKTS:ASAZY) versus Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE)

Assa Abloy (OTCMKTS:ASAZY) and Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

Assa Abloy has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lakeland Industries has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Assa Abloy and Lakeland Industries”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assa Abloy	$15.58 billion	2.81	$1.50 billion	$0.76	25.84
Lakeland Industries	$192.65 million	0.49	-$25.31 million	($2.58)	-3.73

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

Profitability

This table compares Assa Abloy and Lakeland Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assa Abloy	10.51%	15.93%	7.58%
Lakeland Industries	-13.14%	-9.57%	-6.06%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Assa Abloy and Lakeland Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assa Abloy	0	3	2	2	2.86
Lakeland Industries	1	1	3	0	2.40

Lakeland Industries has a consensus target price of $15.20, indicating a potential upside of 57.84%. Given Lakeland Industries’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Lakeland Industries is more favorable than Assa Abloy.

Dividends

Assa Abloy pays an annual dividend of $0.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Lakeland Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Assa Abloy pays out 22.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lakeland Industries pays out -3.5% 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. Lakeland Industries has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Lakeland Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.7% of Lakeland Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Lakeland Industries shares are held by company 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.

Summary

Assa Abloy beats Lakeland Industries on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Assa Abloy

ASSA ABLOY AB (publ) provides door opening and access products, solutions, and services for the institutional, commercial, and residential markets in Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Oceania. The company provides digital access solutions, such as electronic access control ecosystem, wireless solutions, electronic key solutions, standalone access solutions, and wired solutions; swing, revolving, and sliding doors; mechanical products, including hinges, lever handles, mortise lockcases, euro profile cylinders, panic exit devices, door closers, floor spring, and general hardware; and doors. It offers Openings Studio, a building information modeling software ecosystem is collaboration tool for designing, documenting, and managing openings. The company provides its products primarily under the ASSA ABLOY, Yale, and HID brands. It sells its products through distributors and wholesalers. The company serves aviation, education, distribution and logistics, entertainment and public facility, finance and banking, government and military, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, mining, office and enterprise, homes and residence, retail, shipyards, and transportation industries. ASSA ABLOY AB (publ) was incorporated in 1954 and is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

About Lakeland Industries

Lakeland Industries, Inc. manufactures and sells industrial protective clothing and accessories for the industrial and public protective clothing market worldwide. It offers firefighting and heat protective apparel to protect against fire; high-end chemical protective suits to provide protection from highly concentrated, toxic and/or lethal chemicals, and biological toxins; and limited use/disposable protective clothing, such as coveralls, laboratory coats, shirts, pants, hoods, aprons, sleeves, arm guards, caps, and smocks. The company provides durable woven garments, including electrostatic dissipative apparel used in electronics clean rooms; flame resistant meta aramid, para aramid, and FR cotton coveralls/pants/jackets used in petrochemical, refining operations, and electrical utilities; FR fabrics; and cotton and polycotton coveralls, lab coats, pants, and shirts. In addition, it provides high visibility clothing comprising reflective apparel, including vests, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, coats, raingear, jumpsuits, hats, and gloves; and gloves and sleeves that are used in the automotive, glass, and metal fabrication industries. The company sells its products to a network of safety and industrial supply distributors through in-house sales teams, customer service group, and independent sales representatives. It serves end users, such as integrated oil, chemical/petrochemical, automobile, steel, glass, construction, smelting, cleanroom, janitorial, pharmaceutical, and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as scientific, medical laboratories, and the utilities industry; and federal, state, and local governmental agencies and departments. Lakeland Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.