Beam Global (NASDAQ:BEEM) and Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) Head to Head Review

Beam Global (NASDAQ:BEEM) and Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) are both small-cap auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Beam Global and Wabash National, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Beam Global	1	2	0	0	1.67
Wabash National	1	2	0	0	1.67

Wabash National has a consensus target price of $8.75, suggesting a potential downside of 7.21%. Given Wabash National’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Wabash National is more favorable than Beam Global.

Volatility & Risk

Beam Global has a beta of 1.4, suggesting that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wabash National has a beta of 1.55, suggesting that its share price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

26.6% of Beam Global shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.1% of Wabash National shares are held by institutional investors. 5.6% of Beam Global shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Wabash National shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Beam Global and Wabash National’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Beam Global	-73.22%	-73.50%	-42.14%
Wabash National	-4.41%	-30.16%	-8.79%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Beam Global and Wabash National”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Beam Global	$28.24 million	0.93	-$27.00 million	($0.96)	-1.23
Wabash National	$1.54 billion	0.25	$211.45 million	($1.60)	-5.89

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

Summary

Wabash National beats Beam Global on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Beam Global

Beam Global, a clean-technology innovation company, engages in the design, development, engineering, manufacture, and sale of renewably energized infrastructure products and battery solutions. Its product portfolio includes EV ARC (electric vehicle autonomous renewable charger), an infrastructure product that uses integrated solar power and battery storage to provide a mounting asset and a source of power for factory installed electric vehicle charging stations; Solar Tree DCFC, an off-grid, renewably energized, and single-column mounted smart generation and energy storage system to provide a 150kW DC fast charge to one or more electric vehicles, such as electric buses, heavy-duty vehicles, agricultural equipment, public transportation, and electric vehicles used in the construction industry; and EV ARC DCFC, a DC fast charging system for charging EVs. The company is also involved in the development of EV-Standard, a lamp standard, EV charging, and emergency power product that uses an existing streetlamp's foundation and a combination of solar, wind, grid connection, and onboard energy storage to provide curbside charging; and UAV ARC, an off-grid and renewably energized product and network used to charge aerial drone (UAV) fleets. It offers its solutions for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, energy storage, energy security, disaster preparedness, street lighting, telecommunications, energy infrastructure, and outdoor media and branding industries. The company was formerly known as Envision Solar International, Inc. and changed its name to Beam Global in September 2020. Beam Global was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

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.