Head-To-Head Analysis: AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) & Planet Image International (NASDAQ:YIBO)

Planet Image International (NASDAQ:YIBO) and AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Planet Image International and AstroNova, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Planet Image International	1	0	0	0	1.00
AstroNova	1	0	0	0	1.00

Insider & Institutional Ownership

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

Volatility & Risk

Planet Image International has a beta of 3.02, meaning that its share price is 202% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstroNova has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Planet Image International and AstroNova’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Planet Image International	N/A	N/A	N/A
AstroNova	-0.88%	2.94%	1.61%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Planet Image International and AstroNova”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Planet Image International	$155.25 million	0.46	-$8.25 million	N/A	N/A
AstroNova	$152.17 million	1.49	-$2.38 million	($0.18)	-160.50

AstroNova has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Planet Image International.

Summary

AstroNova beats Planet Image International on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Planet Image International

Planet Image International Limited, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells compatible toner cartridges on a white-label or third-party brand basis in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company also sells branded products through online sales channels under the TrueImage, CoolToner, and AZtech brands. It serves wholesalers, dealers, and retail customers. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Xinyu, China. Planet Image International Limited operates as a subsidiary of Aster Excellent Limited.

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.