AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT – Get Free Report) and TDK (OTCMKTS:TTDKY – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for AstroNova and TDK, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| AstroNova | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
| TDK | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.00 |
Volatility and Risk
AstroNova has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TDK has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings & Valuation
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| AstroNova | $152.17 million | 1.49 | -$2.38 million | ($0.18) | -161.06 |
| TDK | $16.64 billion | 2.56 | $1.29 billion | $0.68 | 32.21 |
TDK has higher revenue and earnings than AstroNova. AstroNova is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TDK, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares AstroNova and TDK’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| AstroNova | -0.88% | 2.94% | 1.61% |
| TDK | 7.87% | 9.15% | 4.48% |
Insider & Institutional Ownership
43.0% of AstroNova shares are held by institutional investors. 12.6% of AstroNova shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of TDK shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Dividends
AstroNova pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. TDK pays an annual dividend of $0.15 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. AstroNova pays out -155.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TDK pays out 22.1% 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. AstroNova is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
TDK beats AstroNova on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About AstroNova
AstroNova, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes specialty printers, and data acquisition and analysis systems in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Product Identification (PI) and Test & Measurement (T&M). The PI segment offers tabletop and production-ready digital color label printers, and OEM printing systems under the QuickLabel brand; digital color label mini-presses and inline printing systems under the TrojanLabel brand; and label materials, tags material, inks, toners, and thermal transfer ribbions under the GetLabels brand. This segment also develops and licenses various specialized software programs to design and manage labels and print images; and provides training and support. This segment serves chemicals, cosmetics, food and beverage, medical products, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and other industries; and brand owners, label converters, commercial printers, and packaging manufacturers. The T&M segment offers airborne printing solutions, such as ToughWriter used to print hard copies of navigation maps, arrival and departure information, flight itineraries, weather maps, performance data, passenger data, and various air traffic control data; ToughSwitch, an ethernet switches used to connect multiple computers or Ethernet devices; TMX data acquisition systems; Daxus DXS-100 distributed data acquisition platform; SmartCorder DDX100 portable data acquisition systems for facility and field testing; and Everest EV-5000, a digital strip chart recording system used primarily in aerospace and defense. This segment serves aerospace and aerospace and defense, automotive, commercial airline, energy, manufacturing, and transportation industries. The company was formerly known as Astro-Med, Inc. and changed its name to AstroNova, Inc. in May 2016. AstroNova, Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
About TDK
TDK Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in manufacture and sale of electronic components in Japan, Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, and internationally. The company operates through Passive Components, Sensor Application Products, Magnetic Application Products, Energy Application Products, and Other segments. The Passive Components segment offers ceramic capacitors, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, film capacitors, high-frequency components, piezoelectric materials, and circuit protection components, as well as inductive devices, including ferrite cores, coils, and transformers. The Sensor Application Products segment provides temperature and pressure, magnetic, and MEMS sensors. The Magnetic Application Products segment offers hard disk drives (HDD) heads, HDD suspension assemblies, and magnets. The Energy Application Products segment provides energy devices comprising rechargeable batteries, and power supplies. The Other segment provides mechatronics production equipment and camera module micro actuators for smartphones and other products. The company also engages in engages in insurance and real estate agency businesses. The company was formerly known as Tokyo Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. and changed its name to TDK Corporation in 1983. TDK Corporation was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
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