Financial Contrast: Karman (NYSE:KRMN) and Heico (NYSE:HEI.A)

Karman (NYSE:KRMN) and Heico (NYSE:HEI.A) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

59.0% of Heico shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.8% of Heico shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Karman and Heico, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Karman	0	1	6	2	3.11
Heico	0	0	0	1	4.00

Karman presently has a consensus price target of $80.50, suggesting a potential upside of 19.68%. Given Karman’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Karman is more favorable than Heico.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Karman	$345.25 million	25.78	$12.70 million	$0.25	269.04
Heico	$3.86 billion	8.74	$514.11 million	$4.57	53.00

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

Profitability

This table compares Karman and Heico’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Karman	2.65%	11.11%	3.97%
Heico	14.96%	16.29%	8.00%

Summary

Heico beats Karman on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Karman

We specialize in the upfront design, testing, manufacturing, and sale of mission-critical systems for existing and emerging missile and defense, and space programs. Our integrated payload protection, propulsion, and interstage system solutions are deployed across a wide variety of existing and emerging programs supporting important Department of Defense (“DoD”) and space sector initiatives. We estimate that no single program accounted for more than 10% of sales for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 or the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, with revenue from over 100 active programs supporting current production and next-generation space, missile, hypersonic, and defense applications. We believe that our engineering expertise, vertically integrated production capabilities, and track record with critical piece part and subcomponent manufacturing positions us to successfully serve our prime customers who rely on us to deliver technical design and scaled manufacturing for integrated systems that are required to withstand extreme environments and meet stringent performance requirements. Our highly engineered solutions are organized into three key families: Payload Protection and Deployment Systems, Aerodynamic Interstage Systems, and Propulsion Systems: • Payload Protection and Deployment Systems: full design and manufacturing of the top section of a booster, launch vehicle, payload, or missile system • Aerodynamic Interstage Systems: supporting metallic and composite subsystems designed for aerodynamics and interstage separation • Propulsion Systems: offering of integrated solid rocket motors and supporting subsystems, launch systems, and ablative composites Our solutions are deployed across three growing, core end markets: Hypersonics & Strategic Missile Defense, Missile & Integrated Defense Systems, and Space & Launch. We serve a diverse customer base within these end-markets where we maintain long-standing relationships and engineering partnerships. We believe that our differentiated technical design, expertise, intellectual property, and heritage of mission success provides us with a value proposition that would be difficult to replicate by our current and potential future competitors. By utilizing our vertically integrated and concept-to-production capabilities along with a highly targeted acquisition strategy, we have created a business model aimed at creating long-term, sustainable value for our customers, the programs we support, and the warfighter. — Our business approach combines both strong organic growth and our proven buy, build, and integrate acquisition strategy. Karman Space and Defense is defined by four core acquisitions that have been fully integrated into our business to create a synergistic platform with complementary capabilities and robust intellectual property (“IP”). Our formation began with the merger of Aerospace Engineering, LLC (“AEC”) and AMRO Fabricating Corporation (“AMRO”) in October 2020, which allowed us to become one of the largest independently owned suppliers focused on manufacturing complex systems for the space and missile markets. Shortly thereafter, we acquired American Automated Engineering, Inc. (“AAE”) (December 2020), a manufacturer of high-temperature composites, and Systima Technologies (“Systima”) (September 2021), a specialist in design and integration of energetic and mechanical systems into the structural design of mission-critical space and hypersonic systems. Since inception, we have completed three additional, complementary acquisitions focused on further expanding our capability set. Altogether, these acquisitions have: • United complementary capabilities that are critical to Karman’s “concept-to- production capabilities” offering to blue chip missile and space primes • Provided a storied heritage of trusted, mission success encompassing 40+ years, which we deem vital to success in our industry • Created a platform and strategic basis to continue to seek accretive, complementary acquisitions — Today, Karman operates approximately 730,000 square feet of design, engineering, and manufacturing space, supporting a single Karman go-to-market strategy. We continue to evaluate opportunities to support anticipated growth and have recently invested to outfit a new 30,000 square foot facility in Decatur, AL to primarily service a new customer. We currently operate as a Delaware limited liability company under the name TCFIII Spaceco Holdings LLC (d/b/a Karman Space and Defense) (otherwise referred to herein as “Karman LLC”), which is a holding company that holds all of the equity interests of our operating subsidiaries. Karman LLC was formed August 20, 2020. Prior to the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, Karman LLC will convert to a Delaware corporation and we will change our name to Karman Holdings Inc. Our principal offices are located at 5351 Argosy Ave, Huntington Beach, CA.

About Heico

HEICO Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells aerospace, defense, and electronic related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Flight Support Group segment provides jet engine and aircraft component replacement parts; thermal insulation blankets and parts; renewable/reusable insulation systems; and specialty components. This segment also distributes hydraulic, pneumatic, structural, interconnect, mechanical, and electro-mechanical components for the commercial, regional, and general aviation markets; and offers repair and overhaul services for jet engine and aircraft component parts, avionics, instruments, composites, and flight surfaces of commercial aircraft, as well as for avionics and navigation systems, subcomponents, and other instruments utilized on military aircraft. Its Electronic Technologies Group segment provides electro-optical infrared simulation and test equipment; electro-optical laser products; electro-optical, microwave, and other power equipment; electromagnetic and radio interference shielding and suppression filters; high-speed interface products; high voltage interconnection devices; high voltage advanced power electronics; power conversion products; and underwater locator beacons and emergency locator transmission beacons. This segment also offers traveling wave tube amplifiers and microwave power modules; three-dimensional microelectronic and stacked memory products; harsh environment connectivity products and custom molded cable assemblies; radio frequency and microwave amplifiers, transmitters, and receivers; communications and electronic intercept receivers and tuners; self-sealing auxiliary fuel systems; active antenna systems; and nuclear radiation detectors. The company serves customers primarily in the aviation, defense, space, medical, telecommunications, and electronics industries. HEICO Corporation was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Hollywood, Florida.