Financial Review: DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ:DXPE) versus Spirax Group (OTCMKTS:SPXSY)

DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ:DXPE) and Spirax Group (OTCMKTS:SPXSY) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.8% of DXP Enterprises shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.4% of Spirax Group shares are held by institutional investors. 22.7% of DXP Enterprises shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

DXP Enterprises has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Spirax Group has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for DXP Enterprises and Spirax Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DXP Enterprises	0	0	2	1	3.33
Spirax Group	0	0	0	1	4.00

DXP Enterprises currently has a consensus price target of $154.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.89%. Given DXP Enterprises’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe DXP Enterprises is more favorable than Spirax Group.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares DXP Enterprises and Spirax Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DXP Enterprises	$2.02 billion	1.16	$88.68 million	$5.38	28.09
Spirax Group	$2.25 billion	3.32	$215.44 million	N/A	N/A

Spirax Group has higher revenue and earnings than DXP Enterprises.

Profitability

This table compares DXP Enterprises and Spirax Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DXP Enterprises	4.40%	18.83%	6.04%
Spirax Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

DXP Enterprises beats Spirax Group on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DXP Enterprises

DXP Enterprises, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in distributing maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) products, equipment, and services in the United States and Canada. It operates through three segments: Service Centers (SC), Supply Chain Services (SCS), and Innovative Pumping Solutions (IPS). The SC segment offers MRO products, equipment, and integrated services, including technical expertise and logistics services. It offers a range of MRO products in the rotating equipment, bearing, power transmission, hose, fluid power, metal working, fastener, industrial supply, safety products, and safety services categories. This segment serves customers in the oil and gas, food and beverage, petrochemical, transportation, other general industrial, mining, construction, chemical, municipal, agriculture, and pulp and paper industries. The SCS segment manages procurement and inventory vinventory optimization and management, storeroom management, transaction consolidation and control, vendor oversight and procurement cost optimization, productivity improvement, and customized reporting services. Its programs include SmartAgreement, a procurement solution for various MRO categories; SmartBuy, an on-site or centralized MRO procurement solution; SmartSource, an on-site procurement and storeroom management solution; SmartStore, an e-Catalog solution; SmartVend, an industrial dispensing solution; and SmartServ, an integrated service pump solution. The IPS segment fabricates and assembles custom-made pump packages; remanufactures pumps; and manufactures branded private label pumps. DXP Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1908 and is based in Houston, Texas.

About Spirax Group

Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc provides engineered solutions it operates through three segments: Steam Thermal Solutions; Electric Thermal Solutions; and Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions. The company offers industrial and commercial steam systems, including condensate management, controls, and thermal energy management products and solutions for heating, curing, cooking, drying, cleaning, sterilizing, space heating, humidifying, vacuum packing, and producing hot water; electrical process heating and temperature management solutions, such as industrial heaters and systems, heat tracing, and various component technologies for industrial processes; and peristaltic and niche pumps and associated fluid path technologies, including tubing, and specialty filling systems and products for single-use applications. It serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology, food, beverage, oil, gas, chemical, power generation, healthcare, water and wastewater, buildings, mining and precious metal processing, semiconductor, and transport sectors, as well as original equipment manufacturers. The company sells its products directly, as well as through distributors. It operates in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; the Asia Pacific; and the Americas. The company was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Cheltenham, the United Kingdom.