Reviewing EHang (NASDAQ:EH) and Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY)

Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) and EHang (NASDAQ:EH) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, profitability, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

96.0% of Mercury Systems shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.0% of EHang shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Mercury Systems shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 39.6% of EHang 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Mercury Systems and EHang”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mercury Systems	$942.55 million	5.07	-$37.90 million	($0.53)	-150.21
EHang	$62.49 million	13.62	-$31.48 million	($0.56)	-21.13

EHang has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Mercury Systems. Mercury Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than EHang, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Mercury Systems and EHang, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mercury Systems	2	3	4	1	2.40
EHang	1	1	4	1	2.71

Mercury Systems currently has a consensus price target of $86.89, suggesting a potential upside of 9.14%. EHang has a consensus price target of $23.48, suggesting a potential upside of 98.39%. Given EHang’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe EHang is more favorable than Mercury Systems.

Risk & Volatility

Mercury Systems has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, EHang has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Mercury Systems and EHang’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mercury Systems	-3.23%	1.28%	0.76%
EHang	-67.07%	-27.80%	-15.90%

Summary

EHang beats Mercury Systems on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mercury Systems

Mercury Systems, Inc., a technology company, manufactures and sells components, products, modules, and subsystems for aerospace and defense industries in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Its products and solutions are deployed in approximately 300 programs with 25 defense contractors and commercial aviation customers. The company offers components, including power amplifiers and limiters, switches, oscillators, filters, equalizers, digital and analog converters, chips, monolithic microwave integrated circuits, and memory and storage devices; modules and sub-assemblies, such as embedded processing boards, switched fabrics and boards, digital receivers, multi-chip modules, integrated radio frequency and microwave multi-function assemblies, tuners, and transceivers, as well as graphics and video boards; and integrated subsystems. It also designs and develops digital radio frequency memory units for various modern electronic warfare applications; radar environment simulation and test systems for defense and intelligence applications; and signals intelligence payloads and EO/IR technologies for small UAV platforms, as well as onboard UAV processor systems for real-time wide area motion imagery. The company was formerly known as Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Mercury Systems, Inc. in November 2012. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts.

About EHang

EHang Holdings Limited operates as an autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) technology platform company in the People's Republic of China, East Asia, West Asia, Europe, and internationally. It designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and operates AAVs, as well as their supporting systems and infrastructure for various industries and applications, including passenger transportation, logistics, smart city management, and aerial media solutions. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, the People's Republic of China.