Analyzing Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW) and EHang (NASDAQ:EH)

Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW) and EHang (NASDAQ:EH) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Curtiss-Wright and EHang, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Curtiss-Wright	0	3	3	0	2.50
EHang	1	1	2	0	2.25

Curtiss-Wright presently has a consensus target price of $746.67, suggesting a potential upside of 2.23%. EHang has a consensus target price of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 89.16%. Given EHang’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe EHang is more favorable than Curtiss-Wright.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.7% of Curtiss-Wright shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.0% of EHang shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Curtiss-Wright shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 39.6% of EHang shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Curtiss-Wright and EHang’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Curtiss-Wright	14.17%	20.00%	10.01%
EHang	-44.56%	-20.92%	-11.66%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Curtiss-Wright and EHang”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Curtiss-Wright	$3.50 billion	7.71	$484.23 million	$13.65	53.51
EHang	$72.86 million	9.65	-$32.97 million	($0.44)	-22.23

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

Risk & Volatility

Curtiss-Wright has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, EHang has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Curtiss-Wright beats EHang on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Curtiss-Wright

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides engineered products, solutions, and services mainly to aerospace and defense, commercial power, process, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics, and Naval & Power. The Aerospace & Industrial segment offers industrial and specialty vehicle products, such as power management electronics, traction inverters, transmission shifters, and control systems; sensors, controls, and electro-mechanical actuation components used on commercial and military aircraft; and surface technology services including shot peening, laser peening, and engineered coatings. The Defense Electronics segment provides commercial off-the-shelf embedded computing board-level modules and processing equipment, data acquisition and flight test instrumentation equipment, integrated subsystems, instrumentation and control systems, tactical communications solutions; and electronic stabilization products, and weapons handling systems; avionics and electronics; flight test equipment; and aircraft data management solutions. The Naval & Power segment offers main coolant pumps, power-dense compact motors, generators, steam turbines, valves, and secondary propulsion systems; energy absorbers, retractable hook cable systems, net-stanchion systems and mobile systems to support fixed land-based arresting systems; hardware, valves, fastening systems, specialized containment doors, airlock hatches, and spent fuel management products; reactor coolant pumps and control rod drive mechanisms for commercial nuclear power plants, as well as various nuclear reactor technologies. This segment furnishes severe-service valve technologies and services, heat exchanger repair, and piping test and isolation products, and offers ship repair and maintenance for the U.S. navy. Curtiss-Wright Corporation was incorporated in 1929 and is headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina.

About EHang

EHang Holdings Limited operates as an autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) technology platform company in the People's Republic of China, East Asia, West Asia, Europe, and internationally. It designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and operates AAVs, as well as their supporting systems and infrastructure for various industries and applications, including passenger transportation, logistics, smart city management, and aerial media solutions. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, the People's Republic of China.