Analyzing Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) and RF Industries (NASDAQ:RFIL)

RF Industries (NASDAQ:RFIL) and Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for RF Industries and Flex, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
RF Industries	0	2	2	0	2.50
Flex	0	2	8	2	3.00

RF Industries currently has a consensus price target of $14.50, suggesting a potential upside of 117.72%. Flex has a consensus price target of $131.78, suggesting a potential upside of 88.85%. Given RF Industries’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe RF Industries is more favorable than Flex.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares RF Industries and Flex”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
RF Industries	$80.59 million	0.90	$80,000.00	$0.22	30.27
Flex	$27.91 billion	0.92	$880.00 million	$2.77	25.19

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

Profitability

This table compares RF Industries and Flex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
RF Industries	2.83%	15.32%	7.80%
Flex	3.35%	24.93%	5.63%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

23.5% of RF Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.3% of Flex shares are held by institutional investors. 20.4% of RF Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Flex shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

RF Industries has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flex has a beta of 1.8, meaning that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Flex beats RF Industries on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About RF Industries

RF Industries, Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets interconnect products and systems in the United States, Canada, Italy, Mexico, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, RF Connector and Cable Assembly, and Custom Cabling Manufacturing and Assembly. The company designs, manufactures, and distributes various coaxial connectors and cable assemblies that are integrated with coaxial connectors; custom copper and fiber cable assemblies, complex hybrid fiber optic and power solution cables, adapters, and electromechanical wiring harnesses for communication, computer, LAN, automotive, and medical equipment; energy-efficient cooling systems for wireless base stations and remote equipment shelters; and custom-designed pole-ready 5G small cell integrated enclosures. It also designs and manufactures cable assemblies and wiring harnesses for blue chip industrial, oilfield, instrumentation, medical, and military customers; connectivity solutions to telecommunications and data communications distributors; thermal control systems; and radio frequency and microwave distribution system products, such as dividers, directional couplers, and filters. The company sells its products through warehousing distributors and in-house marketing and sales team. It serves telecommunications carriers and equipment manufacturers, wireless and network infrastructure carriers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Celltronics, Inc. and changed its name RF Industries, Ltd. in November 1990. RF Industries, Ltd. was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Flex

Flex Ltd. provides technology, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. It operates through three segments: Flex Agility Solutions (FAS), Flex Reliability Solutions (FRS), and Nextracker. The FAS segment offers flexible supply and manufacturing system comprising communications, enterprise and cloud solution, which includes data, edge, and communications infrastructure; lifestyle solution including appliances, consumer packaging, floorcare, micro mobility, and audio; and consumer devices, such as mobile and high velocity consumer devices. Its FRS segment provides complex ramps with specialized production models and critical environments, which comprise automotive including next generation mobility, autonomous, connectivity, electrification, and smart technologies; health solutions, such as medical devices, medical equipment, and drug delivery; and industrial solutions including capital equipment, industrial devices, and renewables and grid edge. The Nextracker segment offers solar tracker and software solutions, which are used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects. In addition, it provides a broad array of services including design and engineering, component services, rapid prototyping, fulfillment, and circular economy solutions. The company was formerly known as Flextronics International Ltd. and changed its name to Flex Ltd. in September 2016. Flex Ltd. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Singapore.