Murata Manufacturing (OTCMKTS:MRAAY) vs. AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Head to Head Survey

Murata Manufacturing (OTCMKTS:MRAAY) and AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Murata Manufacturing and AZZ, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Murata Manufacturing	0	0	0	0	0.00
AZZ	0	3	5	3	3.00

AZZ has a consensus target price of $116.43, indicating a potential upside of 10.08%. Given AZZ’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe AZZ is more favorable than Murata Manufacturing.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Murata Manufacturing and AZZ”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Murata Manufacturing	$11.45 billion	3.08	$1.54 billion	$0.39	24.28
AZZ	$1.58 billion	2.01	$128.83 million	$8.63	12.26

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.8% of Murata Manufacturing shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.9% of AZZ shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of AZZ shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Murata Manufacturing pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. AZZ pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Murata Manufacturing pays out 35.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AZZ pays out 9.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Profitability

This table compares Murata Manufacturing and AZZ’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Murata Manufacturing	12.51%	8.51%	7.28%
AZZ	16.40%	15.54%	7.51%

Volatility & Risk

Murata Manufacturing has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AZZ has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AZZ beats Murata Manufacturing on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Murata Manufacturing

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. designs, manufactures, and sells ceramic-based passive electronic components and solutions in Japan and internationally. The company offers capacitors, inductors, noise suppression products/EMI suppression filters/ESD protection devices, resistors, thermistors, sensors, timing devices, quartz devices, sound components, power products, batteries, micro mechatronics, RFID product, baluns, couplers, filters, phase shifters, RF switches, front-end modules, SAW components, connectors, antennas, connectivity modules, wireless connectivity platforms, ionizers/active oxygen modules, and transformers. It also offers Femtet, a CAE software that solves various engineering challenges; and provides silver oxide battery. In addition, the company provides connectivity, Wifi sensing, IOT, AI, and RFID solutions. Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. offers its products for use in communications equipment, mobility, enterprise system, industrial, healthcare, medical, personal electronics applications, and other sectors. The company was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Nagaokakyo, Japan.

About AZZ

AZZ Inc. provides hot-dip galvanizing and coil coating solutions in North America. It offers metal finishing solutions for corrosion protection, including hot-dip galvanizing, spin galvanizing, powder coating, anodizing, and plating to steel fabrication and other industries, as well as to fabricators or manufacturers that provide services to the transmission and distribution, bridge and highway, petrochemical, and general industrial markets; and original equipment manufacturers. It also provides aesthetic and corrosion protective coatings and related value-added services for steel and aluminum coil primarily serving the construction; appliance; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; container; transportation; and other end markets. The company was incorporated in 1956 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.