Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) versus Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) Financial Survey

Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) and Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.8% of Stratasys shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.5% of Middleby shares are held by institutional investors. 4.3% of Stratasys shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.7% of Middleby shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Stratasys and Middleby”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stratasys	$551.10 million	1.21	-$104.29 million	($1.34)	-5.76
Middleby	$3.20 billion	1.53	-$277.73 million	($9.26)	-11.70

Stratasys has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Middleby. Middleby is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stratasys, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Stratasys and Middleby, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stratasys	1	1	4	0	2.50
Middleby	2	2	5	0	2.33

Stratasys presently has a consensus target price of $12.33, suggesting a potential upside of 59.76%. Middleby has a consensus target price of $160.43, suggesting a potential upside of 48.12%. Given Stratasys’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Stratasys is more favorable than Middleby.

Volatility and Risk

Stratasys has a beta of 1.93, suggesting that its share price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Middleby has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Stratasys and Middleby’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stratasys	-21.05%	-1.77%	-1.38%
Middleby	-13.22%	17.44%	7.66%

Summary

Middleby beats Stratasys on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Stratasys

Stratasys Ltd. provides connected polymer-based 3D printing solutions. It offers range of 3D printing systems, which includes polyjet printer, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers, stereolithography printing systems, origin P3 printers, and selective absorption fusion printer for additive manufacturing, and tooling and rapid prototyping for various vertical markets, such as automotive, aerospace, consumer products and healthcare. The company provides consumable materials, including 3D printing materials comprising FDM, polyjet, and stereolithography materials for manufacturing applications, such as jigs and fixtures, investment casting, and injection mold or composite tooling applications; and other material. In addition, it offers software and services, which includes cloud, desktop and mobile technologies comprising GrabCAD, an additive manufacturing platform to manage production-scale operations; and GrabCAD Print, job programming software enables the unique features of 3D printing technologies, such as creating lightweight, structurally sound infills for FDM, and multi-material and color and material management for polyjet. The company also provides GrabCAD Shop including scheduling, remote monitoring, and analytics; GrabCAD Connect provides two-way SDK integration for third-party software applications; and GrabCAD Community, an online community of professional engineers, designers, manufacturers and students who share their practices through tutorials, discussion forums, design/print challenges, and 3D content. Further, it offers GrabCAD Shop, which simplifies 3D printing shop workflow; GrabCAD Streamline Software Development Kit (SDK) to support enterprise goals such as system connectivity, compliance, and workflow automation; and Grab CAD Software Partner program for independent software vendors. The company sells its products through a network of resellers and independent sales agents worldwide. Stratasys Ltd. is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

About Middleby

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing. The company's Food Processing Equipment Group segment provides batch, baking, proofing, conveyor belt, and continuous processing ovens; frying and automated thermal processing systems; tumblers, massagers, grinders, slicers, reduction and emulsion systems, mixers, and blenders; battering, breading, and seeding equipment; water cutting systems, food presses, food suspension equipment, filling and depositing solutions, and forming equipment; and automated washing systems, auto-guided vehicles, food safety, food handling, freezing, and defrosting and packaging equipment. Its Residential Kitchen Equipment Group segment offers kitchen equipment comprising cookers, stoves, cooktops, microwaves, ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, undercounter refrigeration, wine cellars, ice machines, beer dispensers, mixers, rotisseries, and ventilation and outdoor cooking equipment. The company was formerly known as Middleby Marshall Oven Company and changed its name to The Middleby Corporation in 1985. The company was founded in 1888 and is based in Elgin, Illinois.