Aqua Metals (NASDAQ:AQMS – Get Free Report) and Pentair (NYSE:PNR – Get Free Report) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and dividends.
Profitability
This table compares Aqua Metals and Pentair’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Aqua Metals | N/A | -185.00% | -129.28% |
| Pentair | 15.98% | 21.92% | 12.21% |
Risk & Volatility
Aqua Metals has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pentair has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Aqua Metals | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Pentair | 3 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 2.47 |
Pentair has a consensus target price of $107.86, suggesting a potential upside of 46.38%. Given Pentair’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pentair is more favorable than Aqua Metals.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
22.0% of Aqua Metals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Pentair shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.3% of Aqua Metals shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Pentair shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Aqua Metals and Pentair”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Aqua Metals | $30,000.00 | 308.00 | -$22.65 million | ($10.85) | -0.25 |
| Pentair | $4.18 billion | 2.85 | $653.80 million | $4.08 | 18.06 |
Pentair has higher revenue and earnings than Aqua Metals. Aqua Metals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pentair, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Pentair beats Aqua Metals on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Aqua Metals
Aqua Metals, Inc. engages in reinventing metals recycling activities with its patented AquaRefining technology. The company's technology produces metals and alloys that can be returned into the battery manufacturing supply chain markets, as well as sells metals for use in various advanced manufacturing industries. Its AquaRefining, a low-emissions and recycling technology that replaces polluting furnaces and hazardous chemicals with electricity-powered electroplating to recover valuable metals and materials from spent batteries. Aqua Metals, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.
About Pentair
Pentair plc provides various water solutions in the United States, Western Europe, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, Canada, and Japan. The company operates through three segments: Flow, Water Solutions, and Pool. The Flow segment designs, manufactures, and sells fluid treatment and pump products and systems, including pressure vessels, gas recovery solutions, membrane bioreactors, wastewater reuse systems and advanced membrane filtration, separation systems, water disposal pumps, water supply pumps, fluid transfer pumps, turbine pumps, solid handling pumps, and agricultural spray nozzles for fluid delivery, ion exchange, desalination, food and beverage, separation technologies in the oil and gas industry, residential and municipal wells, water treatment, wastewater solids handling, pressure boosting, circulation and transfer, fire suppression, flood control, agricultural irrigation, and crop spray in residential, commercial, and industrial markets. The Water Solutions segment provides commercial and residential water treatment products and systems, including pressure tanks, control valves, activated carbon products, commercial ice machines, conventional filtration products, and point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment systems, as well as installation and preventative services for use in residential whole home water filtration, drinking water filtration, and water softening solutions, as well as commercial total water management and filtration in foodservice operations. The Pool segment provides residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories comprising pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls, automatic cleaners, maintenance equipment, and pool accessories for applications in residential and commercial pool maintenance, pool repair, renovation, service, and construction and aquaculture solutions. Pentair plc was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
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