Comparing Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FWDI) and NCR Atleos (NYSE:NATL)

Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FWDI) and NCR Atleos (NYSE:NATL) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

88.7% of NCR Atleos shares are held by institutional investors. 15.9% of Forward Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of NCR Atleos shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Forward Industries has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NCR Atleos has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Forward Industries and NCR Atleos, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Forward Industries	1	1	2	0	2.25
NCR Atleos	0	4	1	0	2.20

Forward Industries currently has a consensus target price of $13.50, suggesting a potential upside of 98.82%. NCR Atleos has a consensus target price of $50.27, suggesting a potential upside of 10.40%. Given Forward Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Forward Industries is more favorable than NCR Atleos.

Profitability

This table compares Forward Industries and NCR Atleos’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Forward Industries	-2,073.82%	-18.05%	-17.03%
NCR Atleos	4.44%	83.41%	5.87%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Forward Industries and NCR Atleos”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Forward Industries	$18.19 million	27.57	-$166.97 million	$0.12	56.58
NCR Atleos	$4.35 billion	0.77	$162.00 million	$2.58	17.65

NCR Atleos has higher revenue and earnings than Forward Industries. NCR Atleos is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Forward Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

NCR Atleos beats Forward Industries on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Forward Industries

Forward Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, markets, and distributes carry and protective solutions primarily for handheld electronic devices. The company operates in three segments: OEM Distribution, Retail Distribution, and Design. The OEM Distribution segment sources and distributes carrying cases and other accessories for medical monitoring and diagnostic kits; and various portable electronic and non-electronic products, such as sporting and recreational products, bar code scanners, GPS devices, tablets, and firearms. The Retail Distribution segment sources and sells smart-enabled furniture and a range of other products through agreements with various retailers, including in stores and online retailer websites. The Design segment provides hardware and software product design and engineering services. The company sells its products to original equipment manufacturers in the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Forward Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York.

About NCR Atleos

NCR Atleos Corporation operates as a financial technology company in the United States, rest of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Self-Service Banking, Network, and Telecommunications & Technology (T&T). The Self-Service Banking segment offers solutions, including a line of automated teller machine (ATM) and interactive teller machine (ITM) hardware and software, as well as related installation, maintenance, and managed and professional services; and solutions to manage and run the ATM channel end-to-end for financial institutions comprising back office, cash management, software management and ATM deployment, and others. The Network segment provides a network of ATMs and multi-functioning financial services kiosks for financial institutions, fintechs, neobanks, and retailers; Allpoint network for credit unions, banks, digital banks, fintechs, stored-value debit card issuers, and other consumer financial services providers; ReadyCode to convert a digital value to cash or cash to a digital value; ATM branding solutions to financial institutions; ATM management and services to retailers and other businesses; and engages in the buying and selling of Bitcoins. The T&T segment offers managed network and infrastructure services to enterprise clients across various industries through communications service providers and technology manufacturers; and professional, field, and remote services for modern network technologies, including software-defined wide area networking, network functions virtualization, wireless local area networks, optical networking, and edge networks. NCR Atleos Corporation is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.