Financial Contrast: Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) vs. Teledyne Technologies (NYSE:TDY)

Teledyne Technologies (NYSE:TDY) and Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Teledyne Technologies and Mercury Systems, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Teledyne Technologies	0	3	6	0	2.67
Mercury Systems	2	2	4	2	2.60

Teledyne Technologies currently has a consensus target price of $605.38, suggesting a potential upside of 7.75%. Mercury Systems has a consensus target price of $81.25, suggesting a potential downside of 17.61%. Given Teledyne Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Teledyne Technologies is more favorable than Mercury Systems.

Profitability

This table compares Teledyne Technologies and Mercury Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Teledyne Technologies	13.62%	9.95%	6.73%
Mercury Systems	-3.53%	1.14%	0.69%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.6% of Teledyne Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.0% of Mercury Systems shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Teledyne Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Mercury Systems shares are owned 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Teledyne Technologies and Mercury Systems”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Teledyne Technologies	$5.67 billion	4.65	$819.20 million	$17.27	32.53
Mercury Systems	$912.02 million	6.50	-$37.90 million	($0.57)	-173.02

Teledyne Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than Mercury Systems. Mercury Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Teledyne Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Teledyne Technologies has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mercury Systems has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Teledyne Technologies beats Mercury Systems on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Teledyne Technologies

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, provides enabling technologies for industrial growth markets in the United States and internationally. Its Digital Imaging segment provides visible spectrum sensors and digital cameras; and infrared, ultraviolet, visible, and X-ray spectra; as well as micro electromechanical systems and semiconductors, including analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. This segment also offers cooled and uncooled infrared or thermal products, including sensors, camera cores, and camera systems; high-resolution, low-dose X-ray sensors, high-power microwave, and high-energy X-ray subsystems; and instruments for the measurement of physical properties and maritime products; as well as develops and manufactures multi-spectrum electro-optic/infrared imaging systems and associated products, such as lasers, optics, and radars, CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive detectors), and unmanned air and ground systems. The company's Instrumentation segment offers monitoring, control, and electronic test and measurement equipment; and power and communications connectivity devices for distributed instrumentation systems and sensor networks. The company's Aerospace and Defense Electronics segment provides electronic components and subsystems, data acquisition and communications components and equipment, harsh environment interconnects, general aviation batteries, and other components; and onboard avionics systems and ground-based applications, aircraft data and connectivity solutions, hardware systems, and software applications. Its Engineered Systems segment offers systems engineering and integration, technology development, and manufacturing solutions for defense, space, environmental, and energy applications; and designs and manufactures electrochemical energy systems and electronics for military applications. The company was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.

About Mercury Systems

Mercury Systems, Inc., a technology company, manufactures and sells components, products, modules, and subsystems for aerospace and defense industries in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Its products and solutions are deployed in approximately 300 programs with 25 defense contractors and commercial aviation customers. The company offers components, including power amplifiers and limiters, switches, oscillators, filters, equalizers, digital and analog converters, chips, monolithic microwave integrated circuits, and memory and storage devices; modules and sub-assemblies, such as embedded processing boards, switched fabrics and boards, digital receivers, multi-chip modules, integrated radio frequency and microwave multi-function assemblies, tuners, and transceivers, as well as graphics and video boards; and integrated subsystems. It also designs and develops digital radio frequency memory units for various modern electronic warfare applications; radar environment simulation and test systems for defense and intelligence applications; and signals intelligence payloads and EO/IR technologies for small UAV platforms, as well as onboard UAV processor systems for real-time wide area motion imagery. The company was formerly known as Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Mercury Systems, Inc. in November 2012. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts.