Analyzing REV Group (NYSE:REVG) and PowerFleet (NASDAQ:AIOT)

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.4% of PowerFleet shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of PowerFleet shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of REV Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for PowerFleet and REV Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PowerFleet	1	1	3	0	2.40
REV Group	0	2	1	1	2.75

PowerFleet currently has a consensus price target of $9.67, indicating a potential upside of 147.23%. REV Group has a consensus price target of $55.67, indicating a potential downside of 12.88%. Given PowerFleet’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe PowerFleet is more favorable than REV Group.

Risk and Volatility

PowerFleet has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, REV Group has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares PowerFleet and REV Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PowerFleet	$443.78 million	1.18	-$20.55 million	($0.16)	-24.44
REV Group	$2.46 billion	1.27	$95.20 million	$1.91	33.46

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

Profitability

This table compares PowerFleet and REV Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PowerFleet	-4.63%	-1.33%	-0.66%
REV Group	3.86%	31.67%	10.30%

Summary

REV Group beats PowerFleet on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About REV Group

REV Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and distributes specialty vehicles, and related aftermarket parts and services in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Fire & Emergency, Commercial, and Recreation. The Fire & Emergency segment provides fire apparatus equipment under the Emergency One, Kovatch Mobile Equipment, Ferrara, Spartan Emergency Response, Smeal, Spartan Fire Chassis, and Ladder Tower brand names; and ambulances under the American Emergency Vehicles, Horton Emergency Vehicles, Leader Emergency Vehicles, Road Rescue, and Wheeled Coach brand names. The Commercial segment offers transit buses, type A school buses, sweepers, and terminal trucks under the Collins Bus, Eldorado National (California), Magellan, Capacity, and LayMor brand names. The Recreation segment offers motorized and towable RV models under the American Coach, Fleetwood RV, Holiday Rambler, Renegade RV, Midwest Automotive Designs, and Lance Camper brands; and produces a range of custom molded fiberglass products. The company sells its products to municipalities, government agencies, private contractors, consumers, and industrial and commercial end users through its direct sales force or dealer network. The company was formerly known as Allied Specialty Vehicles, Inc. and changed its name to REV Group, Inc. in November 2015. REV Group, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Brookfield, Wisconsin.