Critical Survey: Quantum (QMCO) and Its Competitors

Quantum (NASDAQ:QMCO) is one of 81 public companies in the “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Quantum to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

63.7% of Quantum shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.5% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are held by institutional investors. 41.0% of Quantum shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.8% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are held by company 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Quantum and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Quantum	1	0	4	0	2.60
Quantum Competitors	1047	4275	7542	357	2.55

Quantum currently has a consensus target price of $24.00, indicating a potential downside of 8.08%. As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies have a potential upside of 11.84%. Given Quantum’s peers higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Quantum has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Risk and Volatility

Quantum has a beta of 2.97, suggesting that its share price is 197% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quantum’s peers have a beta of 1.55, suggesting that their average share price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Quantum and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Quantum	$279.58 million	-$101.05 million	-1.97
Quantum Competitors	$23.84 billion	$3.72 billion	7.56

Quantum’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Quantum. Quantum is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Quantum and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Quantum	-80.76%	N/A	-7.28%
Quantum Competitors	-493.26%	-14.53%	4.44%

Summary

Quantum beats its peers on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About Quantum

Quantum Corporation provides products for storing and managing digital video and unstructured data in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers Myriad All-Flash File and Object Storage Software for high performance enterprise unstructured data applications such as AI, machine learning, and data analytics; Unified Surveillance Platform Software that unified compute and storage for video surveillance recording, storage, and analytics; StorNext Hybrid Flash/Disk File Storage Software for video editing, post-production, and streaming applications, as well as digital file archives; and CatDV Asset Management Software for indexing, cataloging, enriching video, audio, and image files, and workflow orchestration. It also provides ActiveScale Object Storage Software that scalable and durable storage for long term data preservation and protection; DXi Backup Appliances to build backup appliances for high-speed backup and recovery and multisite data protection; and Scalar Tape Storage that secure storage for long term data archiving and offline data protection which are used by hyperscalers and enterprises. In addition, the company sells linear tape-open (LTO) a tape drives for small business data protection and archiving; and LTO media for use in tape storage systems. Further, it offers global support, managed services, customer support agreements, software subscriptions, installation, education, and consulting and training services, as well as Quantum-as-a-Service. The company sells its products through a network of distributors, value-added resellers, direct marketing resellers, original equipment manufacturers, and other suppliers, as well as directly to corporate entities and government agencies. It has a partnership with Tiger Surveillance to deliver end-to-end solutions for long-term retention and archiving of video surveillance data. Quantum Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.