Critical Survey: FTAI Aviation (NASDAQ:FTAI) and AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV)

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) and FTAI Aviation (NASDAQ:FTAI) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

AeroVironment has a beta of 1.41, indicating that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FTAI Aviation has a beta of 1.51, indicating that its share price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.4% of AeroVironment shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.0% of FTAI Aviation shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of AeroVironment shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of FTAI Aviation shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for AeroVironment and FTAI Aviation, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AeroVironment	1	3	18	2	2.88
FTAI Aviation	0	2	9	0	2.82

AeroVironment presently has a consensus target price of $238.89, suggesting a potential upside of 47.42%. FTAI Aviation has a consensus target price of $315.67, suggesting a potential upside of 64.20%. Given FTAI Aviation’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe FTAI Aviation is more favorable than AeroVironment.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares AeroVironment and FTAI Aviation”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AeroVironment	$2.00 billion	4.11	-$265.12 million	($2.34)	-69.25
FTAI Aviation	$2.51 billion	7.88	$501.06 million	$4.60	41.79

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

Profitability

This table compares AeroVironment and FTAI Aviation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AeroVironment	-5.77%	4.04%	3.13%
FTAI Aviation	15.94%	139.59%	11.26%

Summary

FTAI Aviation beats AeroVironment on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AeroVironment

AeroVironment, Inc. designs, develops, produces, delivers, and supports a portfolio of robotic systems and related services for government agencies and businesses in the United States and internationally. It operates through Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS), Tactical Missile System (TMS), Medium Unmanned Aircraft Systems (MUAS), and High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite Systems (HAPS) segments. The company supplies UAS, TMS, unmanned ground vehicle, and related services primarily to organizations within the U.S. Department of Defense, other federal agencies, and to international allied governments. It also designs, engineers, tools, and manufactures unmanned aerial and aircraft systems, including airborne platforms, payloads and payload integration, ground control systems, and ground support equipment and other items and services related to unmanned aircraft systems. In addition, the company offers small UAS products, including training, spare parts, product repair, product replacement, and the customer contracted operation. Further, it develops high-altitude pseudo-satellite UAS systems. AeroVironment, Inc. was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

About FTAI Aviation

FTAI Aviation Ltd. owns and acquires aviation and offshore energy equipment for the transportation of goods and people worldwide. It operates through two segments, Aviation Leasing and Aerospace Products. The Aviation Leasing segment owns and manages aviation assets, including aircraft and aircraft engines, which it leases and sells to customers. As of December 31, 2023, this segment owned and managed 363 aviation assets consisting of 96 commercial aircraft and 267 engines, including eight aircraft and seventeen engines that were located in Russia. The Aerospace Products segment develops, manufactures, repairs, and sells aircraft engines and aftermarket components for aircraft engines. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York, New York.