Fox Factory (NASDAQ:FOXF) vs. Adient (NYSE:ADNT) Critical Review

Adient (NYSE:ADNT) and Fox Factory (NASDAQ:FOXF) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Adient has a beta of 1.6, suggesting that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fox Factory has a beta of 1.41, suggesting that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Adient and Fox Factory, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Adient	2	3	7	0	2.42
Fox Factory	2	1	1	2	2.50

Adient presently has a consensus price target of $25.40, suggesting a potential upside of 45.86%. Fox Factory has a consensus price target of $21.25, suggesting a potential upside of 17.73%. Given Adient’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Adient is more favorable than Fox Factory.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.4% of Adient shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Adient shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Fox Factory shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Adient and Fox Factory’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Adient	0.32%	7.32%	1.66%
Fox Factory	-20.39%	5.57%	2.37%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Adient and Fox Factory”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Adient	$14.54 billion	0.09	-$281.00 million	$0.60	29.02
Fox Factory	$1.47 billion	0.52	-$544.58 million	($7.14)	-2.53

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

Summary

Adient beats Fox Factory on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Adient

Adient plc engages in the design, development, manufacture, and market of seating systems and components for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and light trucks. The company's automotive seating solutions include complete seating systems, frames, mechanisms, foams, head restraints, armrests, and trim covers. It serves automotive original equipment manufacturers in North America and South America; Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and the Asia Pacific/China. Adient plc was incorporated in 2016 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.

About Fox Factory

Fox Factory Holding Corp. designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets performance-defining products and system worldwide. The company offers powered vehicle products for side-by-side vehicles, on-road vehicles with and without off-road capabilities, off-road vehicles and trucks, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, and specialty vehicles and applications, such as military, motorcycles, and commercial trucks; lift kits and components with shock products and aftermarket accessory packages for trucks; and mid-end and high-end front fork and rear suspension products. It also provides suspension tuning services, as well as wheels, off-road tires and accessories. In addition, the company offers mountain and gravel bike wheels, and other performance cycling components, including cranks, chainrings, pedals, bars, stems, and seat posts, as well as baseball and softball products comprising metal bats, wood bats, apparel and accessories, batting gloves, fielding gloves, and bags and protective equipment under the Marucci brand. The company serves aftermarket applications products under the BDS Suspension, Zone Offroad, JKS Manufacturing, RT Pro UTV, 4×4 Posi-Lok, Ridetech, Tuscany, Outside Van, SCA, and Custom Wheel House brands; and mountain bikes, e-bikes, and gravel bikes under the FOX, Race Face, Easton Cycling, and Marzocchi brands. Fox Factory Holding Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Duluth, Georgia.