Critical Analysis: Art’s-Way Manufacturing (ARTW) & Its Peers

Art’s-Way Manufacturing (NASDAQ:ARTW) is one of 434 public companies in the “Machinery” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Art’s-Way Manufacturing to similar companies based on the strength of its valuation, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Art’s-Way Manufacturing and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	1	0	0	0	1.00
Art’s-Way Manufacturing Competitors	4080	14476	17893	777	2.41

As a group, “Machinery” companies have a potential upside of 33.32%. Given Art’s-Way Manufacturing’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Art’s-Way Manufacturing has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Volatility & Risk

Art’s-Way Manufacturing has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Art’s-Way Manufacturing’s competitors have a beta of 4.52, suggesting that their average stock price is 352% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.9% of Art’s-Way Manufacturing shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.2% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by institutional investors. 51.5% of Art’s-Way Manufacturing shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.1% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Art’s-Way Manufacturing and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	$22.98 million	$1.03 million	-300.00
Art’s-Way Manufacturing Competitors	$4.51 billion	$348.34 million	-27.27

Art’s-Way Manufacturing’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Art’s-Way Manufacturing. Art’s-Way Manufacturing is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Art’s-Way Manufacturing and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	-0.08%	-0.16%	-0.10%
Art’s-Way Manufacturing Competitors	-1,946.96%	-10.16%	0.86%

Summary

Art’s-Way Manufacturing competitors beat Art’s-Way Manufacturing on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

About Art’s-Way Manufacturing

Art’s-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc. manufactures and distributes farm equipment products. It operates through the Agricultural Products, and Modular Buildings segments. The Agricultural Products segment manufactures a variety of specialized farm machinery under its own label including portable and stationary animal feed processing equipment and related attachments used to mill and mix feed grains into custom animal feed rations, a line of forage equipment consisting of forage boxes, bale processors, running gear, and dump boxes, a line of manure spreaders, sugar beet harvesting equipment, and a line of dirt work equipment. The Modular Buildings segment produces and sells modular buildings, which are custom designed to meet the specific research needs of its customers. It also provides services relating to the design, manufacturing, delivery, installation and renting of the building units that it produces. The company was founded by Arthur Luscombe in 1956 and is headquartered in Armstrong, IA.