Critical Analysis: Titan Machinery (TITN) vs. Its Peers

Titan Machinery (NASDAQ:TITN) is one of 157 publicly-traded companies in the “Trading Companies & Distributors” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Titan Machinery to related companies based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Titan Machinery	-2.46%	-9.17%	-3.20%
Titan Machinery Competitors	1.10%	-33.72%	3.55%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Titan Machinery and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Titan Machinery	1	0	1	0	2.00
Titan Machinery Competitors	1469	4921	6741	242	2.43

Titan Machinery presently has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential upside of 19.54%. As a group, “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies have a potential upside of 8.00%. Given Titan Machinery’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Titan Machinery is more favorable than its peers.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.4% of Titan Machinery shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.5% of shares of all “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies are held by institutional investors. 10.8% of Titan Machinery shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.3% of shares of all “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Titan Machinery	$2.43 billion	-$54.17 million	-9.74
Titan Machinery Competitors	$6.70 billion	$363.16 million	33.55

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

Volatility and Risk

Titan Machinery has a beta of 1.39, indicating that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Titan Machinery’s peers have a beta of 1.32, indicating that their average stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Titan Machinery peers beat Titan Machinery on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

Titan Machinery Company Profile

Titan Machinery, Inc. is an equipment dealer serving the agriculture and construction industries. The company sells new and used machinery through a network of dealerships in the United States and Europe, representing manufacturers such as Case IH, New Holland Agriculture and Case Construction Equipment. Its offerings include tractors, combines, planting and hay equipment, loaders, excavators and other construction machinery. Titan Machinery also provides replacement parts, equipment maintenance and repair, rentals, and precision agriculture products and services.