Head-To-Head Comparison: Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) and ESS Tech (NYSE:GWH)

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) and ESS Tech (NYSE:GWH) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Vertiv and ESS Tech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vertiv	15.09%	50.47%	15.87%
ESS Tech	N/A	-1,934.84%	-156.40%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Vertiv and ESS Tech, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vertiv	1	5	23	2	2.84
ESS Tech	1	0	1	0	2.00

Vertiv presently has a consensus price target of $337.67, suggesting a potential upside of 39.01%. ESS Tech has a consensus price target of $2.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1,176.32%. Given ESS Tech’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ESS Tech is more favorable than Vertiv.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vertiv and ESS Tech”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vertiv	$10.23 billion	9.14	$1.33 billion	$4.42	54.96
ESS Tech	$1.58 million	3.27	-$63.44 million	($2.93)	-0.05

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

89.9% of Vertiv shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 46.8% of ESS Tech shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Vertiv shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of ESS Tech 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.

Risk & Volatility

Vertiv has a beta of 2.05, indicating that its share price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ESS Tech has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Vertiv beats ESS Tech on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vertiv

Vertiv Holdings Co, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and services critical digital infrastructure technologies and life cycle services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It offers AC and DC power management products, switchgear and busbar products, thermal management products, integrated rack systems, modular solutions, and management systems for monitoring and controlling digital infrastructure that are integral to the technologies used for various services, including e-commerce, online banking, file sharing, video on-demand, energy storage, wireless communications, Internet of Things, and online gaming. The company also provides lifecycle management services, predictive analytics, and professional services for deploying, maintaining, and optimizing its products and their related systems; and preventative maintenance, acceptance testing, engineering and consulting, performance assessments, remote monitoring, training, spare parts, and digital critical infrastructure software services. It offers its products primarily under the Vertiv, Liebert, NetSure, Geist, E&I, Powerbar, and Avocent brands. The company serves cloud services, financial services, healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, energy, education, government, social media, and retail industries through a network of direct sales professionals, independent sales representatives, channel partners, and original equipment manufacturers. Vertiv Holdings Co is headquartered in Westerville, Ohio.

About ESS Tech

ESS Tech, Inc., an energy storage company, designs and produces iron flow batteries for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications worldwide. It offers energy storage products, which include Energy Warehouse, a behind-the-meter solution; and Energy Center, a front-of-the-meter solution. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon.