Critical Analysis: Asia Pacific Wire & Cable (NASDAQ:APWC) & Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL)

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable (NASDAQ:APWC) and Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Asia Pacific Wire & Cable and Powell Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Asia Pacific Wire & Cable	1.28%	2.16%	1.35%
Powell Industries	16.49%	27.51%	15.94%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Asia Pacific Wire & Cable and Powell Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Asia Pacific Wire & Cable	1	0	0	0	1.00
Powell Industries	0	3	2	2	2.86

Powell Industries has a consensus price target of $187.92, indicating a potential upside of 41.16%. Given Powell Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Powell Industries is more favorable than Asia Pacific Wire & Cable.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.0% of Asia Pacific Wire & Cable shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of Powell Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Asia Pacific Wire & Cable shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Powell Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Asia Pacific Wire & Cable and Powell Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Asia Pacific Wire & Cable	$529.68 million	0.04	$3.67 million	$0.28	4.00
Powell Industries	$1.10 billion	4.39	$180.75 million	$5.21	25.55

Powell Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Asia Pacific Wire & Cable. Asia Pacific Wire & Cable is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Powell Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Powell Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Asia Pacific Wire & Cable pays out 28.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Powell Industries pays out 6.9% 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. Powell Industries has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Powell Industries has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Powell Industries beats Asia Pacific Wire & Cable on 17 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Asia Pacific Wire & Cable

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable Corp. Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the business of owning operating companies in the power cable, telecommunication cable, enameled wire, and electronic cable industry. It operates through the following segments: North Asia, Thailand, and Rest of the World. The company was founded on September 19, 1996 and is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan.

About Powell Industries

Powell Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services custom-engineered equipment and systems. The company’s principal products include integrated power control room substations, custom-engineered modules, electrical houses, medium-voltage circuit breakers, monitoring and control communications systems, motor control centers, switches, and bus duct systems, as well as traditional and arc-resistant distribution switchgears and control gears. Its products have application in voltages ranging from 480 volts to 38,000 volts. The company also provide field service inspection, installation, commissioning, modification and repair, spare parts, retrofit and retrofill components for existing systems, and replacement circuit breakers for switchgear. It serves onshore and offshore production, liquefied natural gas facilities and terminals, pipelines, refineries, and petrochemical plants, as well as electric utility, light rail traction power, mining and metals, pulp and paper, data centers and other municipal, commercial, and industrial markets. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Mexico, and Central and South America. Powell Industries, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.