Itron (ITRI) vs. Its Peers Head to Head Review

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) is one of 377 publicly-traded companies in the “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Itron to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Itron and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Itron	12.05%	20.11%	8.55%
Itron Competitors	-158.14%	-25.87%	-6.85%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Itron and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Itron	1	3	9	0	2.62
Itron Competitors	2047	7599	10422	660	2.47

Itron presently has a consensus target price of $129.20, indicating a potential upside of 26.98%. As a group, “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies have a potential upside of 33.87%. Given Itron’s peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Itron has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Volatility & Risk

Itron has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Itron’s peers have a beta of -0.25, meaning that their average stock price is 125% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.2% of Itron shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.5% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Itron shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.2% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Itron and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Itron	$2.37 billion	$301.05 million	16.44
Itron Competitors	$4.00 billion	$172.92 million	5.73

Itron’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Itron. Itron is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Itron beats its peers on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

About Itron

Itron, Inc., a technology, solutions, and service company, provides end-to-end solutions that help manage energy, water, and smart city operations worldwide. It operates in three segments: Device Solutions, Networked Solutions, and Outcomes. The Device Solutions segment offers hardware products that are used for measurement, control, or sensing, such as standard gas, electricity, water, and communicating meters, as well as heat and allocation products. The Networked Solutions segment provides communicating devices, such as smart meters, modules, endpoints, and sensors; network infrastructure; and associated heat-end management and application software for acquiring and transporting application-specific data. This segment also offers industrial internet of things solutions. Including automated meter reading; advanced metering infrastructure for electricity, water, and gas; distributed energy resource management; smart grid and distribution automation; smart street lighting; and leak detection and applications for gas and water systems. The Outcomes segment provides value-added, enhanced software and services, artificial intelligence, and machine learning for managing, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data to enhance decision making, maximize operational profitability, resource efficiency, grid analytics, and deliver results for consumers, utilities, and smart cities. In addition, it offers implementation, project management, installation, consulting, and post-sale maintenance support services, as well as cloud and software-as-a-service; and extended or customer-specific warranties. The company offers its products and services under the Itron brand. It serves utility and smart city customers, and municipalities through its sales force, distributors, agents, partners, and meter manufacturer representatives. Itron, Inc. was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Liberty Lake, Washington.