Financial Survey: Daktronics (NASDAQ:DAKT) & Sierra Monitor (OTCMKTS:SRMC)

Sierra Monitor (OTCMKTS:SRMC) and Daktronics (NASDAQ:DAKT) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

61.7% of Daktronics shares are held by institutional investors. 45.5% of Sierra Monitor shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Daktronics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Sierra Monitor and Daktronics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sierra Monitor	0	0	0	0	0.00
Daktronics	0	2	1	0	2.33

Daktronics has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential upside of 51.59%. Given Daktronics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Daktronics is more favorable than Sierra Monitor.

Profitability

This table compares Sierra Monitor and Daktronics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sierra Monitor	0.76%	2.89%	2.33%
Daktronics	5.41%	17.62%	9.41%

Risk and Volatility

Sierra Monitor has a beta of 0.03, indicating that its stock price is 97% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Daktronics has a beta of 1.68, indicating that its stock price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sierra Monitor and Daktronics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sierra Monitor	$22.08 million	1.52	$170,000.00	N/A	N/A
Daktronics	$838.71 million	1.10	$45.38 million	$0.91	21.02

Daktronics has higher revenue and earnings than Sierra Monitor.

Summary

Daktronics beats Sierra Monitor on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sierra Monitor

Sierra Monitor Corporation provides industrial Internet of things solutions that connect and protect infrastructure assets to the industrial and commercial facilities management market in the United States and internationally. It offers FieldServer family of protocol gateways, routers, and network explorers for system integrators and original equipment manufacturers to enable local and remote monitoring and control of assets and facilities; and Sentry IT flame and gas detection solutions used by industrial and commercial facilities managers to protect their personnel and assets. The company sells its solutions to telecommunication companies and their suppliers. Sierra Monitor Corporation was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.

About Daktronics

Daktronics, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells electronic scoreboards, programmable display systems and large screen video displays for sporting, commercial, and transportation applications in the United States and internationally. It operates through Commercial, Live Events, High School Park and Recreation, Transportation, and International segments. The company also offers video display and walls; scoreboards and timing systems; LED message displays and sings; intelligent transportation systems dynamic message signs; mass transit display; sound systems; and digital billboards and street furniture, and digit and price displays. In addition, it provides indoor dynamic messaging systems and liquid crystal display signs; and software and controllers, which includes Venus, a control suite software to control the creation of messages and graphic sequences for uploading to displays. The company sells its products through direct sales and resellers. Daktronics, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota.