Comparing Saab (OTCMKTS:SAABY) & Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW)

Saab (OTCMKTS:SAABY) and Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW) are both large-cap aerospace companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability and earnings.

Dividends

Saab pays an annual dividend of $0.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Curtiss-Wright pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Saab pays out 8.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Curtiss-Wright pays out 8.1% 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. Curtiss-Wright has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Volatility and Risk

Saab has a beta of -0.02, suggesting that its stock price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Curtiss-Wright has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Saab and Curtiss-Wright, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Saab	2	1	0	1	2.00
Curtiss-Wright	0	2	6	0	2.75

Curtiss-Wright has a consensus price target of $519.57, indicating a potential downside of 4.62%. Given Curtiss-Wright’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Curtiss-Wright is more favorable than Saab.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Saab and Curtiss-Wright”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Saab	$6.03 billion	4.37	$394.58 million	$0.61	40.38
Curtiss-Wright	$3.12 billion	6.58	$404.98 million	$11.85	45.97

Curtiss-Wright has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Saab. Saab is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Curtiss-Wright, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Saab and Curtiss-Wright’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Saab	7.45%	13.82%	5.19%
Curtiss-Wright	13.66%	18.34%	9.35%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.7% of Curtiss-Wright shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Curtiss-Wright shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Curtiss-Wright beats Saab on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Saab

Saab AB (publ) provides products, services, and solutions for military defense, aviation, and civil security markets worldwide. The company operates through Aeronautics, Dynamics, Surveillance, Kockums, and Combitech segments. The company develops military aviation technology, as well as conducts studies on manned and unmanned aircraft. It also provides ground combat weapons, missile systems, torpedoes, unmanned underwater vehicles, training and simulation systems, and signature management systems for armed forces; and niche products for the civil and defense market, such as underwater vehicles for the offshore industry. In addition, the company offers solutions for safety and security, surveillance and decision support, and threat detection, location, and protection, including airborne, ground-based and naval radar, electronic warfare, and combat systems, as well as C4I solutions. Additionally, it provides submarines with the Stirling system for air independent propulsion, surface combatants, mine hunting systems, and autonomous vessels; and systems development, systems integration, information security, systems security, communications, mechanics, and technical product information and logistics. Saab AB (publ) was incorporated in 1937 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

About Curtiss-Wright

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides engineered products, solutions, and services mainly to aerospace and defense, commercial power, process, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics, and Naval & Power. The Aerospace & Industrial segment offers industrial and specialty vehicle products, such as power management electronics, traction inverters, transmission shifters, and control systems; sensors, controls, and electro-mechanical actuation components used on commercial and military aircraft; and surface technology services including shot peening, laser peening, and engineered coatings. The Defense Electronics segment provides commercial off-the-shelf embedded computing board-level modules and processing equipment, data acquisition and flight test instrumentation equipment, integrated subsystems, instrumentation and control systems, tactical communications solutions; and electronic stabilization products, and weapons handling systems; avionics and electronics; flight test equipment; and aircraft data management solutions. The Naval & Power segment offers main coolant pumps, power-dense compact motors, generators, steam turbines, valves, and secondary propulsion systems; energy absorbers, retractable hook cable systems, net-stanchion systems and mobile systems to support fixed land-based arresting systems; hardware, valves, fastening systems, specialized containment doors, airlock hatches, and spent fuel management products; reactor coolant pumps and control rod drive mechanisms for commercial nuclear power plants, as well as various nuclear reactor technologies. This segment furnishes severe-service valve technologies and services, heat exchanger repair, and piping test and isolation products, and offers ship repair and maintenance for the U.S. navy. Curtiss-Wright Corporation was incorporated in 1929 and is headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina.