PowerFleet (NASDAQ:AIOT) vs. U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) Financial Analysis

U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) and PowerFleet (NASDAQ:AIOT) are both transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

3.6% of U-Haul shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.4% of PowerFleet shares are held by institutional investors. 43.5% of U-Haul shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of PowerFleet shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares U-Haul and PowerFleet”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
U-Haul	$5.97 billion	1.88	$367.09 million	$1.01	56.79
PowerFleet	$362.52 million	2.09	-$50.99 million	($0.31)	-18.23

U-Haul has higher revenue and earnings than PowerFleet. PowerFleet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than U-Haul, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

U-Haul has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PowerFleet has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for U-Haul and PowerFleet, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
U-Haul	1	0	0	1	2.50
PowerFleet	1	1	5	0	2.57

PowerFleet has a consensus price target of $10.50, indicating a potential upside of 85.84%. Given PowerFleet’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe PowerFleet is more favorable than U-Haul.

Profitability

This table compares U-Haul and PowerFleet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
U-Haul	3.90%	2.99%	1.12%
PowerFleet	-9.70%	-9.00%	-4.48%

Summary

U-Haul beats PowerFleet on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About U-Haul

AMERCO operates as a do-it-yourself moving and storage operator for household and commercial goods in the United States and Canada. The company’s Moving and Storage segment rents trucks, trailers, portable moving and storage units, specialty rental items, and self-storage spaces primarily to the household movers; and sells moving supplies, towing accessories, and propane. It also provides uhaul.com, an online marketplace that connects consumers to independent Moving Help service providers and independent self-storage affiliates; auto transport and tow dolly options to transport vehicles; and specialty boxes for dishes, computers, and sensitive electronic equipment, as well as tapes, security locks, and packing supplies. This segment rents its products and services through a network of approximately 2,065 company operated retail moving stores and 20,100 independent U-Haul dealers. As of March 31, 2020, it had a rental fleet of approximately 176,000 trucks, 127,000 trailers, and 41,000 towing devices; and 1,745 self-storage locations with approximately 774,000 rentable storage units. The company’s Property and Casualty Insurance segment offers loss adjusting and claims handling services. It also provides moving and storage protection packages, such as Safemove and Safetow packages, which offer moving and towing customers with a damage waiver, cargo protection, and medical and life insurance coverage; Safestor that protects storage customers from loss on their goods in storage; Safestor Mobile, which protects customers stored belongings; and Safemove Plus, which provides rental customers with a layer of primary liability protection. The company’s Life Insurance segment provides life and health insurance products primarily to the senior market through the direct writing and reinsuring of life insurance, medicare supplement, and annuity policies. AMERCO was founded in 1945 and is based in Reno, Nevada.

About PowerFleet

PowerFleet, Inc. engages in the provision of fleet management solutions for logistics, industrial, and vehicles. It offers wireless Internet of Things and machine to machine solutions for securing, controlling, tracking, and managing enterprise assets such as industrial trucks, tractor trailers, containers, cargo, and vehicle and truck fleets. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Israel, and Other. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.