Head-To-Head Analysis: Komatsu (OTCMKTS:KMTUY) versus ClearSign Technologies (NASDAQ:CLIR)

Komatsu (OTCMKTS:KMTUY) and ClearSign Technologies (NASDAQ:CLIR) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Komatsu and ClearSign Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Komatsu	0	1	0	1	3.00
ClearSign Technologies	1	0	1	0	2.00

ClearSign Technologies has a consensus target price of $20.00, suggesting a potential upside of 469.80%. Given ClearSign Technologies’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ClearSign Technologies is more favorable than Komatsu.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.2% of Komatsu shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.0% of ClearSign Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Komatsu shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of ClearSign Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Komatsu has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ClearSign Technologies has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Komatsu and ClearSign Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Komatsu	$27.45 billion	1.63	$2.48 billion	$2.73	17.61
ClearSign Technologies	$5.23 million	4.57	-$5.50 million	($0.91)	-3.86

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

Profitability

This table compares Komatsu and ClearSign Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Komatsu	8.93%	10.51%	5.93%
ClearSign Technologies	-96.07%	-58.08%	-44.61%

Summary

Komatsu beats ClearSign Technologies on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Komatsu

Komatsu Ltd. manufactures and sells construction, mining, and utility equipment in Japan, the Americas, Europe, China, Rest of Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Africa, and CIS countries. It operates through three segments: Construction, Mining and Utility Equipment; Retail Finance; and Industrial Machinery and Others. The company offers construction and mining equipment, including excavators, wheel loaders, bulldozers, motor graders, dump truck, rope and hybrid shovels, electric wheel loaders, continuous miners, and jumbo drills. It also provides forestry equipment, including harvesters, forwarders, feller bunchers, excavators, mini excavators, and forklifts; demolition, waste, and recycling equipment, such as mobile crushers, hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, and mini shovels; material handling equipment; and tunnel-boring machines, pipe layers, towing tractors, and engines. In addition, the company offers industrial machinery, including presses, sheet-metal machinery, 3D laser cutting machine, transfer machines, battery manufacturing equipment, wire saws, thermos modules, thermoelectric generation module, and temperature control products; quarry equipment; agricultural and livestock equipment; EH sensor device; iron and steel casting products; and logistics equipment. Further, the company provides retail financing; construction machinery rental services; remanufactured products; other support services; transportation, warehousing, packing, and other services; and purchases and sells used equipment. Komatsu Ltd. was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About ClearSign Technologies

ClearSign Technologies Corporation designs and develops products and technologies to enhance emission and operational performance, energy efficiency, emission reduction, safety, and overall cost-effectiveness of industrial and commercial systems in the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Hong Kong. The company's technologies include ClearSign core burner technology consists of an industrial burner body and a downstream porous ceramic or metal flame stabilizing structure; ClearSign core process burner technology that provides a direct burner replacement for traditional refinery process heaters; ClearSign core boiler burner technology; ClearSign core flaring burners that can be used individually, or in combination, to provide a flare product with extremely low nitrogen oxide emissions; and ClearSign eye flame sensor, an electrical flame sensor for industrial applications. It serves energy, institutional, commercial and industrial boiler, chemical, and petrochemical industries. The company was formerly known as ClearSign Combustion Corporation and changed its name ClearSign Technologies Corporation in November 2019. ClearSign Technologies Corporation was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.