Reviewing Vossloh (OTCMKTS:VOSSF) & Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD)

Vossloh (OTCMKTS:VOSSF) and Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Dividends

Vossloh pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Heartland Express pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Vossloh pays out -3.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Heartland Express pays out -28.6% 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Vossloh and Heartland Express, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vossloh	0	1	0	0	2.00
Heartland Express	3	2	1	1	2.00

Heartland Express has a consensus target price of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.93%. Given Heartland Express’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Heartland Express is more favorable than Vossloh.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

33.5% of Vossloh shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.4% of Heartland Express shares are owned by institutional investors. 41.6% of Heartland Express shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Vossloh and Heartland Express’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vossloh	N/A	N/A	N/A
Heartland Express	-2.98%	-0.92%	-0.58%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Vossloh and Heartland Express”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vossloh	N/A	N/A	N/A	($13.01)	-5.24
Heartland Express	$805.71 million	1.20	-$52.45 million	($0.28)	-44.67

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

Summary

Heartland Express beats Vossloh on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vossloh

Vossloh AG provides rail infrastructure products and services in Germany and internationally. It operates through three divisions: Core Components, Customized Modules, and Lifecycle Solutions. The Core Components division develops, produces, and markets rail fastening systems for heavy-haul and high-speed lines, as well as urban transport applications. This division also manufactures concrete ties, switch ties, and concrete elements for slab tracks and level crossing systems. Its Customized Modules division manufactures, installs, and maintains switches and crossings, as well as related control and monitoring systems for light-rail and high-speed applications. The Lifecycle Solutions division engages in rail trading, long-rail unloading at construction sites, welding new rails, reconditioning old rails, on-site welding, rail replacement, rail grinding/milling, rail inspection, and construction site supervision activities. This division also organizes and monitors rail shipments to construction sites; and enables on-site availability of the unloading systems. The company was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in Werdohl, Germany.

About Heartland Express

Heartland Express, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a short-to-medium, and long-haul truckload carrier in the United States and Canada. It primarily provides nationwide asset-based dry van truckload service for shippers; cross-border freight and other transportation services; and temperature-controlled truckload services. The company offers its services under the Heartland Express and Millis Transfer brand names. It primarily serves retailers and manufacturers in consumer goods, appliances, food products, and automotive industries. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in North Liberty, Iowa.