One Stop Systems (NASDAQ:OSS) vs. Preformed Line Products (NASDAQ:PLPC) Financial Comparison

One Stop Systems (NASDAQ:OSS) and Preformed Line Products (NASDAQ:PLPC) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

One Stop Systems has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Preformed Line Products has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares One Stop Systems and Preformed Line Products”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
One Stop Systems	$60.26 million	4.45	-$13.63 million	($0.32)	-34.21
Preformed Line Products	$663.35 million	1.82	$37.09 million	$7.55	32.65

Preformed Line Products has higher revenue and earnings than One Stop Systems. One Stop Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Preformed Line Products, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares One Stop Systems and Preformed Line Products’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
One Stop Systems	-11.47%	-26.14%	-17.67%
Preformed Line Products	5.62%	10.09%	7.37%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for One Stop Systems and Preformed Line Products, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
One Stop Systems	1	0	3	0	2.50
Preformed Line Products	0	0	1	0	3.00

One Stop Systems currently has a consensus price target of $8.00, suggesting a potential downside of 26.92%. Given One Stop Systems’ higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe One Stop Systems is more favorable than Preformed Line Products.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

32.7% of One Stop Systems shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.2% of Preformed Line Products shares are held by institutional investors. 10.8% of One Stop Systems shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 35.1% of Preformed Line Products shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Preformed Line Products beats One Stop Systems on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About One Stop Systems

One Stop Systems, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of high-performance compute, high speed storage hardware and software, switch fabrics, and systems for edge deployments in the United States and internationally. The company's systems are built using the central processing unit, graphical processing unit, high-speed switch fabrics, and flash storage technologies. It provides custom servers, data acquisition platforms, compute accelerators, solid-state storage arrays, and system I/O expansion systems, as well as edge optimized industrial and panel PCs, tablets, and handheld compute devices. The company also offers ruggedized mobile tablets and handhelds that meet the specialized requirement for devices deployed at the edge in a diverse set of environmental conditions. It sells its products to multinational companies, governmental agencies, military contractors, military services, and technology providers through its website, web store, direct sales team, and original equipment manufacturer focused sales, as well as through a network of resellers and distributors. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Escondido, California.

About Preformed Line Products

Preformed Line Products Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures products and systems that are used in the construction and maintenance of overhead, ground-mounted, and underground networks for the energy, telecommunication, cable, data communication, and other industries. The company offers optical ground wire products to support, protect, terminate, and splice transmission and distribution lines, as well as bolted, welded, and compressed connectors for substations; and string hardware products, polymer insulators, wildlife protection, substation fittings, and motion control devices. It also provides rugged outside plant closures to protect and support wireline and wireless networks, such as copper cable or fiber optic cable from moisture, environmental hazards, and other contaminants; and hardware assemblies, pole line hardware, plastic products, cable dynamics/vibration solutions, interior/exterior connectors, tools, and urethane solutions that are used by energy, renewable energy, communications, cable, and special industries for various applications. The company serves public and private energy utilities and communication companies, cable operators, governmental agencies, contractors and subcontractors, distributors, and value-added resellers in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It markets its products through a direct sales force, as well as through manufacturing representatives. Preformed Line Products Company was incorporated in 1947 and is headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio.