Analyzing Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA) and Bodycote (OTCMKTS:BYPLF)

Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA) and Bodycote (OTCMKTS:BYPLF) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Zebra Technologies and Bodycote’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Zebra Technologies	10.73%	18.77%	8.42%
Bodycote	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.0% of Zebra Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Zebra Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Zebra Technologies and Bodycote”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Zebra Technologies	$5.11 billion	2.92	$528.00 million	$10.57	27.82
Bodycote	$967.52 million	1.35	$25.56 million	N/A	N/A

Zebra Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than Bodycote.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Zebra Technologies and Bodycote, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Zebra Technologies	0	4	6	1	2.73
Bodycote	0	1	0	0	2.00

Zebra Technologies presently has a consensus price target of $331.20, indicating a potential upside of 12.64%. Given Zebra Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Zebra Technologies is more favorable than Bodycote.

Volatility & Risk

Zebra Technologies has a beta of 1.75, indicating that its share price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bodycote has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Zebra Technologies beats Bodycote on 13 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Zebra Technologies

Zebra Technologies Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides enterprise asset intelligence solutions in the automatic identification and data capture solutions industry worldwide. It operates in two segments, Asset Intelligence & Tracking, and Enterprise Visibility & Mobility. The company designs, manufactures, and sells printers that produce labels, wristbands, tickets, receipts, and plastic cards; dye-sublimination thermal card printers that produce images, which are used for personal identification, access control, and financial transactions; radio frequency identification device (RFID) printers that encode data into passive RFID transponders; accessories and options for printers, including carrying cases, vehicle mounts, and battery chargers; stock and customized thermal labels, receipts, ribbons, plastic cards, and RFID tags for printers; and temperature-monitoring labels primarily used in vaccine distribution. It also provides various maintenance, technical support, repair, and managed and professional services; fixed readers, RFID enabled mobile computers, and RFID sleds; tags, sensors, exciters, middleware software, and application software; and physical inventory management solutions, and rugged and enterprise-grade mobile computing products and accessories, as well as real-time location systems and services. In addition, the company offers barcode scanners and imagers, RFID readers, industrial machine vision cameras, and fixed industrial scanners; workforce management, workflow execution and task management, and prescriptive analytics, as well as communications and collaboration solutions; and cloud-based software subscriptions, retail, and robotics automation solutions. The company serves retail and e-commerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare, public sector, and other industries through direct sales force, and network of channel partners. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

About Bodycote

Bodycote plc provides heat treatment and thermal processing services worldwide. It operates in two business areas, Aerospace, Defence & Energy; and Automotive & General Industrial. The company offers heat treatment services, including altering the microstructure of metals and alloys, such as steel and aluminum to impart properties comprising surface hardness, temperature resistance, ductility, and strength; metal joining services consisting of electron beam welding, HIP diffusion bonding, hydrogen brazing, induction brazing, and furnace/vacuum brazing; and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) services, including isostatic pressing and HIP supporting services, as well as Powdermet technology, a manufacturing process used in the production of complex components using powder metallurgy. It also provides surface technologies, which are used to prolong the working life of components and protect from environmental factors, such as corrosion and abrasion. The company’s surface technologies include anodising, flame and combustion spraying, high velocity oxygen fuel coatings, plasma spray, electric arc wire, vapor phase aluminide, liquid and ceramic coatings, and thermochemically formed ceramic coatings to enhance corrosion protection and wear resistance. It serves automotive, aerospace and defense, energy, and general industrial markets. The company was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Macclesfield, the United Kingdom.