Atmus Filtration Technologies (NYSE:ATMU) & Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) Critical Review

Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) and Atmus Filtration Technologies (NYSE:ATMU) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.1% of Wabash National shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.7% of Atmus Filtration Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of Wabash National shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Atmus Filtration Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Wabash National and Atmus Filtration Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wabash National	1	1	3	0	2.40
Atmus Filtration Technologies	0	2	4	0	2.67

Wabash National presently has a consensus target price of $22.67, indicating a potential upside of 93.40%. Atmus Filtration Technologies has a consensus target price of $57.67, indicating a potential upside of 26.30%. Given Wabash National’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Wabash National is more favorable than Atmus Filtration Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Wabash National and Atmus Filtration Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wabash National	-9.13%	-42.42%	-10.90%
Atmus Filtration Technologies	11.32%	59.85%	14.66%

Volatility & Risk

Wabash National has a beta of 1.48, meaning that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atmus Filtration Technologies has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Wabash National and Atmus Filtration Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wabash National	$1.52 billion	0.31	$211.45 million	($3.41)	-3.44
Atmus Filtration Technologies	$1.76 billion	2.11	$207.40 million	$2.61	17.49

Wabash National has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Atmus Filtration Technologies. Wabash National is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Atmus Filtration Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Wabash National pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Atmus Filtration Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Wabash National pays out -9.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Atmus Filtration Technologies pays out 9.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Wabash National is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Atmus Filtration Technologies beats Wabash National on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wabash National

Wabash National Corporation provides connected solutions for the transportation, logistics, and distribution industries primarily in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Transportation Solutions and Parts & Services. The Transportation Solutions segment designs and manufactures transportation-related equipment and products dry and refrigerated van trailers, platform trailers, tank trailers, and truck-mounted tanks; truck bodies for dry-freight transportation; cargo and cargo XL bodies for commercial applications; refrigerated truck bodies; platform truck bodies; and used trailers, as well as laminated hardwood oak flooring products. The Parts & Services segment provides aftermarket parts and services; steel flatbed bodies, truck body mounting, shelving for package delivery, partitions, roof racks, hitches, liftgates, thermal solutions, and others; truck body repair parts; and door repair and replacement, collision repair, and basic maintenance services. It also develops and scales a digital marketplace for the transportation and logistics distribution industry; operates a parts and services distribution platform; and stainless steel storage tanks and silos, mixers, and processors for the dairy, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical, craft brewing, and biotech markets; trailers as a service; and composite products, including truck bodies, overhead doors, and other industrial application products, as well as used trailers. The company offers its products under the Wabash, DuraPlate, DuraPlateHD, DuraPlate AeroSkirt, and AeroSkirt CX brands, as well as EcoNex brand. It serves its products to truckload common carriers, leasing companies, private fleet carriers, less-than-truckload common carriers, and package carriers. Wabash National Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana.

About Atmus Filtration Technologies

Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells filtration products under the Fleetguard brand name in North America, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and internationally. The company offers fuel filters, lube filters, air filters, crankcase ventilation, hydraulic filters, coolants, and fuel additives, as well as other chemicals; and fuel water separators and other filtration systems to original equipment manufacturers, dealers/distributors, and end-users. Its products are used in on-highway commercial vehicles and off-highway agriculture, construction, mining, and power generation vehicles and equipment. The company was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.