Critical Analysis: Tecnoglass (NYSE:TGLS) vs. Gibraltar Industries (NASDAQ:ROCK)

Gibraltar Industries (NASDAQ:ROCK) and Tecnoglass (NYSE:TGLS) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Gibraltar Industries and Tecnoglass, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gibraltar Industries	1	1	1	1	2.50
Tecnoglass	2	0	3	0	2.20

Tecnoglass has a consensus price target of $63.33, indicating a potential upside of 82.43%. Given Tecnoglass’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Tecnoglass is more favorable than Gibraltar Industries.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.4% of Gibraltar Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.3% of Tecnoglass shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Gibraltar Industries shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Tecnoglass shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Gibraltar Industries and Tecnoglass”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gibraltar Industries	$1.14 billion	1.06	-$44.39 million	($5.04)	-8.05
Tecnoglass	$1.05 billion	1.47	$159.57 million	$2.84	12.22

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

Profitability

This table compares Gibraltar Industries and Tecnoglass’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gibraltar Industries	-10.43%	11.23%	4.91%
Tecnoglass	12.35%	17.84%	10.14%

Summary

Tecnoglass beats Gibraltar Industries on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gibraltar Industries

Gibraltar Industries, Inc. manufactures and provides products and services for the renewable energy, residential, agtech, and infrastructure markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Renewables, Residential, Agtech, and Infrastructure. The Renewables segment designs, engineers, manufactures, and installs solar racking and electrical balance of systems for commercial and distributed generation scale solar installations. The Residential segment offers roof and foundation ventilation products and accessories; mail and electronic package solutions, including single mailboxes, cluster style mail and parcel boxes for single and multi-family housing, and electronic package locker systems; roof edgings and flashings; soffits and trims; drywall corner beads; metal roofing and accessories; rain dispersion products comprising gutters and accessories; and exterior retractable awnings. This segment also provides electronic parcel lockers, pipe flashings, and remote-controlled deck awnings and valances for sun protection. The Agtech segment offers growing and processing solutions, including the designing, engineering, manufacturing, construction, maintenance, and support of greenhouses; and indoor growing operations for retail, fruits and vegetables, flowers, cannabis, commercial, institutional and conservatories, and car wash structure applications. The Infrastructure segment offers expansion joints, structural bearings, rubber pre-formed seals and other sealants, elastomeric concrete, and bridge cable protection systems. It serves solar developers, home improvement retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and contractors, as well as institutional and commercial growers of fruit, vegetables, flowers, and plants. Gibraltar Industries, Inc. was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Buffalo, New York.

About Tecnoglass

Tecnoglass Inc., through its subsidiaries, designs, produces, markets, and installs architectural systems for the commercial and residential construction industries in Colombia, the United States, Panama, and internationally. The company offers low emissivity, laminated/thermo-laminated, thermo-acoustic, tempered, silk-screened, curved, and digital print glass products. It also provides aluminum products, including bars, plates, profiles, rods, and tubes that are used in the manufacture of architectural glass settings, such as windows, doors, spatial separators, and related products. In addition, the company offers curtain wall/floating facades, windows and doors, interior dividers and commercial display windows, hurricane-proof windows, and stick facade systems; and other products comprising awnings, structures, automatic doors, and other components of architectural systems. It markets and sells its products primarily under the Tecnoglass, ESWindows, and Alutions brands through internal and independent sales representatives, as wells as directly to distributors. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Barranquilla, Colombia. Tecnoglass Inc. is a subsidiary of Energy Holding Corporation.