Critical Contrast: FST (KBSX) versus The Competition

FST (NASDAQ:KBSX) is one of 95 publicly-traded companies in the “Leisure Products” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare FST to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

50.9% of FST shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.4% of shares of all “Leisure Products” companies are held by institutional investors. 54.6% of FST shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.8% of shares of all “Leisure Products” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for FST and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FST	0	0	1	0	3.00
FST Competitors	566	2393	3815	190	2.52

FST currently has a consensus price target of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 173.04%. As a group, “Leisure Products” companies have a potential upside of 22.31%. Given FST’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe FST is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares FST and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FST	0.92%	7.45%	1.94%
FST Competitors	-8.21%	-18.19%	-3.85%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares FST and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
FST	$47.97 million	-$1.50 million	73.25
FST Competitors	$2.93 billion	$72.16 million	575.43

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

Volatility and Risk

FST has a beta of 0.32, suggesting that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FST’s competitors have a beta of 1.20, suggesting that their average share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

FST beats its competitors on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

FST Company Profile

FST Corp. designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes steel golf shafts to golf club original equipment manufacturers and distributors worldwide. The company offers steel shafts under the KBS brand name. FST Corp.is based in Chiayi, Taiwan.