Critical Survey: U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) and PAMT (NASDAQ:PAMT)

PAMT (NASDAQ:PAMT) and U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for PAMT and U-Haul, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PAMT	1	0	0	0	1.00
U-Haul	1	0	1	1	2.67

U-Haul has a consensus price target of $85.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.05%. Given U-Haul’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe U-Haul is more favorable than PAMT.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

22.1% of PAMT shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.6% of U-Haul shares are owned by institutional investors. 77.2% of PAMT shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 43.8% of U-Haul shares are owned 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.

Volatility and Risk

PAMT has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, U-Haul has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares PAMT and U-Haul’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PAMT	-7.07%	-13.82%	-4.32%
U-Haul	1.05%	0.81%	0.30%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares PAMT and U-Haul”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PAMT	$598.06 million	0.39	-$52.61 million	($2.03)	-5.52
U-Haul	$6.04 billion	2.00	$83.13 million	$0.14	443.00

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

Summary

U-Haul beats PAMT on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PAMT

PAMT Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of truckload and logistics services through its subsidiaries. Its freight consists primarily of automotive parts, expedited goods, consumer goods, such as general retail store merchandise, and manufactured goods, such as heating and air conditioning units. The company was founded in June 1986 and is headquartered in Tontitown, AR.

About U-Haul

AMERCO operates as a do-it-yourself moving and storage operator for household and commercial goods in the United States and Canada. The company’s Moving and Storage segment rents trucks, trailers, portable moving and storage units, specialty rental items, and self-storage spaces primarily to the household movers; and sells moving supplies, towing accessories, and propane. It also provides uhaul.com, an online marketplace that connects consumers to independent Moving Help service providers and independent self-storage affiliates; auto transport and tow dolly options to transport vehicles; and specialty boxes for dishes, computers, and sensitive electronic equipment, as well as tapes, security locks, and packing supplies. This segment rents its products and services through a network of approximately 2,065 company operated retail moving stores and 20,100 independent U-Haul dealers. As of March 31, 2020, it had a rental fleet of approximately 176,000 trucks, 127,000 trailers, and 41,000 towing devices; and 1,745 self-storage locations with approximately 774,000 rentable storage units. The company’s Property and Casualty Insurance segment offers loss adjusting and claims handling services. It also provides moving and storage protection packages, such as Safemove and Safetow packages, which offer moving and towing customers with a damage waiver, cargo protection, and medical and life insurance coverage; Safestor that protects storage customers from loss on their goods in storage; Safestor Mobile, which protects customers stored belongings; and Safemove Plus, which provides rental customers with a layer of primary liability protection. The company’s Life Insurance segment provides life and health insurance products primarily to the senior market through the direct writing and reinsuring of life insurance, medicare supplement, and annuity policies. AMERCO was founded in 1945 and is based in Reno, Nevada.