Critical Survey: Ag Growth International (OTCMKTS:AGGZF) and ESAB (NYSE:ESAB)

Ag Growth International (OTCMKTS:AGGZF) and ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

56.8% of Ag Growth International shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.1% of ESAB shares are held by institutional investors. 7.2% of ESAB shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Ag Growth International pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.8%. ESAB pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Ag Growth International pays out 77.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ESAB pays out 17.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ESAB has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Ag Growth International and ESAB, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ag Growth International	0	2	4	0	2.67
ESAB	0	1	8	0	2.89

ESAB has a consensus target price of $138.38, indicating a potential upside of 78.30%. Given ESAB’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ESAB is more favorable than Ag Growth International.

Profitability

This table compares Ag Growth International and ESAB’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ag Growth International	N/A	N/A	N/A
ESAB	5.75%	14.48%	5.99%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ag Growth International and ESAB”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ag Growth International	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.80	5.62
ESAB	$2.84 billion	1.70	$226.77 million	$2.79	27.82

ESAB has higher revenue and earnings than Ag Growth International. Ag Growth International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ESAB, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

ESAB beats Ag Growth International on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ag Growth International

Ag Growth International Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells equipment for the agriculture industry in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It operates through Farm and Commercial segments. The company offers grain, bolted, hopper, and smooth wall bins; temporary storage; unloads and sweeps systems; water tanks; secondary containment systems; fuel tanks; and storage accessories, as well as mixed flow dryers; fans and heaters; aeration products; vents and exhausters; and stirring systems. It also provides portable handling equipment, such as augers, conveyors, grain vacs, post pounders, seed treaters, and related accessories; permanent handling equipment, such as bucket elevators, chain and belt conveyors, distributors, feed handling, screw feeders and conveyors, and spouts and connectors. In addition, the company offers towers, catwalks, and ladders, as well as all-steel buildings; batch blenders, bulk scales, declining weight blenders, vertical blenders, micro-dosing systems, mixers, and milling equipment; and controllers, hazard monitoring, and monitoring and automation equipment. Its products are used in port facilities, inland grain terminals, corporate farms, fertilizer distribution sites, ethanol production, oilseed crushing, commercial feed mills, rice mills, and flour mills. The company serves farmers, agribusinesses, grain handlers, regional cooperatives, contractors, food and animal feed manufacturers, and fertilizer blenders and distributors. Ag Growth International Inc. was founded in 1996 and is based in Winnipeg, Canada.

About ESAB

ESAB Corporation engages in the formulation, development, manufacture, and supply of consumable products and equipment for use in cutting, joining, automated welding, and gas control equipment. Its comprehensive range of welding consumables includes electrodes, cored and solid wires, and fluxes using a range of specialty and other materials; and cutting consumables comprising electrodes, nozzles, shields, and tips. The company's equipment ranges from portable welding machines to large customized automated cutting and welding systems. It also offers a range of software and digital solutions to help its customers increase their productivity, remotely monitor their welding operations, and digitize their documentation. The company sells its products under the ESAB brand to various end markets, such as general industry, infrastructure, renewable energy, medical and life sciences, transportation, construction, and energy. It offers its products through independent distributors and direct salespeople. The company operates in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. ESAB Corporation was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in North Bethesda, Maryland.