Alta Equipment Group (NYSE:ALTG) & Park-Ohio (NASDAQ:PKOH) Head-To-Head Comparison

Alta Equipment Group (NYSE:ALTG) and Park-Ohio (NASDAQ:PKOH) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

73.6% of Alta Equipment Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.4% of Park-Ohio shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.5% of Alta Equipment Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 31.1% of Park-Ohio shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Alta Equipment Group and Park-Ohio, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alta Equipment Group	1	2	2	0	2.20
Park-Ohio	0	2	1	0	2.33

Alta Equipment Group presently has a consensus target price of $9.83, suggesting a potential upside of 52.62%. Park-Ohio has a consensus target price of $59.00, suggesting a potential upside of 23.53%. Given Alta Equipment Group’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Alta Equipment Group is more favorable than Park-Ohio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Alta Equipment Group and Park-Ohio”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alta Equipment Group	$1.82 billion	0.12	-$80.30 million	($2.57)	-2.51
Park-Ohio	$1.60 billion	0.43	$23.80 million	$1.88	25.40

Park-Ohio has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Alta Equipment Group. Alta Equipment Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Park-Ohio, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Alta Equipment Group and Park-Ohio’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alta Equipment Group	-4.42%	-3,253.61%	-5.92%
Park-Ohio	1.60%	10.55%	2.81%

Dividends

Alta Equipment Group pays an annual dividend of $0.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Park-Ohio pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Alta Equipment Group pays out -8.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Park-Ohio pays out 26.6% 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. Alta Equipment Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Alta Equipment Group has a beta of 1.77, meaning that its stock price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Park-Ohio has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Park-Ohio beats Alta Equipment Group on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alta Equipment Group

Alta Equipment Group Inc. owns and operates integrated equipment dealership platforms in the United States. It operates through three segments: Material Handling, Construction Equipment, and Master Distribution. The company operates a branch network that sells, rents, and provides parts and service support for various categories of specialized equipment, including lift trucks and other material handling equipment, heavy and compact earthmoving equipment, crushing and screening equipment, environmental processing equipment, cranes and aerial work platforms, paving and asphalt equipment, and other construction equipment and related products. It also offers repair and maintenance services for its equipment. In addition, the company designs and builds warehouses; provides automated equipment installation and system integration solutions; and distributes environmental processing equipment. It serves various manufacturing, food and beverage, automotive, municipal/government, education, pharmaceutical and medical, wholesale and retail distribution, construction, agriculture, road building, mining, recycling, and waste management sectors. Alta Equipment Group Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Livonia, Michigan.

About Park-Ohio

Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. provides supply chain management outsourcing services, capital equipment, and manufactured components in the United States, Europe, Asia, Mexico, Canada, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Supply Technologies, Assembly Components, and Engineered Products. The Supply Technologies segment offers Total Supply Management that comprises engineering and design support, part usage and cost analysis, supplier selection, quality assurance, bar coding, product packaging and tracking, just-in-time and point-of-use delivery, electronic billing, and ongoing technical support services, as well as provides spare parts and aftermarket products; and production components, such as valves, fuel hose assemblies, electro-mechanical hardware, labels, fittings, steering components, and other products. This segment also engineers and manufactures precision cold-formed and cold-extruded fasteners, and other products comprising locknuts, SPAC nuts, SPAC bolts, and wheel hardware. The Assembly Components segment offers direct fuel injection fuel rails and pipes, fuel filler pipes, and flexible multi-layer plastic and rubber assemblies; turbo charging and coolant hoses; and value-added services comprising design engineering, machining, and parts assembly. The Engineered Products segment provides engineered products, including induction heating and melting systems, pipe threading systems, and forged and machined products for ferrous and non-ferrous metals, silicon, coatings, forging, foundry, automotive, and construction equipment industries; engineers and installs mechanical forging presses; sells spare parts; field services; and forges aerospace and defense structural components, such as landing gears and struts, as well as rail products comprising railcar center plates and draft lugs. Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.