Analyzing Art’s-Way Manufacturing (ARTW) and Its Peers

Art’s-Way Manufacturing (NASDAQ:ARTW) is one of 434 public companies in the “Machinery” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Art’s-Way Manufacturing to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Art’s-Way Manufacturing has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Art’s-Way Manufacturing’s peers have a beta of 4.53, indicating that their average stock price is 353% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Art’s-Way Manufacturing and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	-0.08%	-0.16%	-0.10%
Art’s-Way Manufacturing Competitors	-1,936.04%	-9.91%	0.89%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Art’s-Way Manufacturing and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	$22.98 million	$1.03 million	-302.00
Art’s-Way Manufacturing Competitors	$4.83 billion	$354.64 million	-20.01

Art’s-Way Manufacturing’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Art’s-Way Manufacturing. Art’s-Way Manufacturing 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.9% of Art’s-Way Manufacturing shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.2% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by institutional investors. 51.5% of Art’s-Way Manufacturing shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.9% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Art’s-Way Manufacturing and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Art’s-Way Manufacturing	1	0	0	0	1.00
Art’s-Way Manufacturing Competitors	4095	14498	17924	779	2.41

As a group, “Machinery” companies have a potential upside of 32.86%. Given Art’s-Way Manufacturing’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Art’s-Way Manufacturing has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Summary

Art’s-Way Manufacturing peers beat Art’s-Way Manufacturing on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

Art’s-Way Manufacturing Company Profile

Art’s-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc. manufactures and distributes farm equipment products. It operates through the Agricultural Products, and Modular Buildings segments. The Agricultural Products segment manufactures a variety of specialized farm machinery under its own label including portable and stationary animal feed processing equipment and related attachments used to mill and mix feed grains into custom animal feed rations, a line of forage equipment consisting of forage boxes, bale processors, running gear, and dump boxes, a line of manure spreaders, sugar beet harvesting equipment, and a line of dirt work equipment. The Modular Buildings segment produces and sells modular buildings, which are custom designed to meet the specific research needs of its customers. It also provides services relating to the design, manufacturing, delivery, installation and renting of the building units that it produces. The company was founded by Arthur Luscombe in 1956 and is headquartered in Armstrong, IA.