Analyzing Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS) & Its Peers

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) is one of 229 publicly-traded companies in the “Aerospace & Defense” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions	2.03%	3.07%	2.55%
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Competitors	-289.55%	-47.45%	-4.31%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.9% of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.5% of shares of all “Aerospace & Defense” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.9% of shares of all “Aerospace & Defense” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions	$1.35 billion	$22.00 million	241.71
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Competitors	$8.34 billion	$569.54 million	24.75

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Kratos Defense & Security Solutions. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions	2	1	20	3	2.92
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Competitors	2149	8222	12703	577	2.50

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $86.40, suggesting a potential upside of 110.27%. As a group, “Aerospace & Defense” companies have a potential upside of 25.21%. Given Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is more favorable than its competitors.

Volatility & Risk

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ competitors have a beta of 1.34, indicating that their average stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions beats its competitors on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

About Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. engages in the provision of mission critical products, services and solutions for United States national security priorities. It operates through the Kratos Government Solutions (KGS) and Unmanned Systems (US) segments. The KGS segment consists of an aggregation of KGS operating segments, including microwave electronic products, space, satellite and cyber, training solutions. The US segment refers to the unmanned aerial, unmanned ground, unmanned seaborne and related command, control and communications system businesses. The company was founded on December 19, 1994, and is headquartered in Round Rock, TX.