Contrasting AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) and Qfin (NASDAQ:QFIN)

Qfin (NASDAQ:QFIN) and AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.8% of Qfin shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.0% of AstroNova shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.1% of Qfin shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of AstroNova shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Qfin and AstroNova”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Qfin	$2.35 billion	0.95	$858.21 million	$6.86	2.30
AstroNova	$151.28 million	0.49	-$14.49 million	($2.23)	-4.36

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

Volatility & Risk

Qfin has a beta of 0.52, suggesting that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstroNova has a beta of 0.73, suggesting that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Qfin and AstroNova’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Qfin	35.09%	28.73%	12.22%
AstroNova	-11.20%	2.48%	1.31%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Qfin and AstroNova, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Qfin	1	2	1	0	2.00
AstroNova	1	0	0	0	1.00

Qfin presently has a consensus target price of $36.85, indicating a potential upside of 133.52%. Given Qfin’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Qfin is more favorable than AstroNova.

Summary

Qfin beats AstroNova on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Qfin

Qifu Technology, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates credit-tech platform under the 360 Jietiao brand in the People's Republic of China. It provides credit-driven services that matches borrowers with financial institutions to conduct customer acquisition, initial and credit screening, advanced risk assessment, credit assessment, fund matching, and other post-facilitation services; and platform services, including loan facilitation and post-facilitation services to financial institution partners under intelligence credit engine, referral services, and risk management software-as-a-service. The company also offers e-commerce loans, enterprise loans, and invoice loans to SME owners. It serves financial institutions, consumers, and small- and micro-enterprises. The company was formerly known as 360 DigiTech, Inc. and changed its name to Qifu Technology, Inc. in March 2023. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.

About AstroNova

AstroNova, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes specialty printers, and data acquisition and analysis systems in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Product Identification (PI) and Test & Measurement (T&M). The PI segment offers tabletop and production-ready digital color label printers, and OEM printing systems under the QuickLabel brand; digital color label mini-presses and inline printing systems under the TrojanLabel brand; and label materials, tags material, inks, toners, and thermal transfer ribbions under the GetLabels brand. This segment also develops and licenses various specialized software programs to design and manage labels and print images; and provides training and support. This segment serves chemicals, cosmetics, food and beverage, medical products, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and other industries; and brand owners, label converters, commercial printers, and packaging manufacturers. The T&M segment offers airborne printing solutions, such as ToughWriter used to print hard copies of navigation maps, arrival and departure information, flight itineraries, weather maps, performance data, passenger data, and various air traffic control data; ToughSwitch, an ethernet switches used to connect multiple computers or Ethernet devices; TMX data acquisition systems; Daxus DXS-100 distributed data acquisition platform; SmartCorder DDX100 portable data acquisition systems for facility and field testing; and Everest EV-5000, a digital strip chart recording system used primarily in aerospace and defense. This segment serves aerospace and aerospace and defense, automotive, commercial airline, energy, manufacturing, and transportation industries. The company was formerly known as Astro-Med, Inc. and changed its name to AstroNova, Inc. in May 2016. AstroNova, Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in West Warwick, Rhode Island.