Analyzing AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) and Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL)

AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) and Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for AstroNova and Dell Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AstroNova	1	0	0	0	1.00
Dell Technologies	1	10	20	1	2.66

Dell Technologies has a consensus price target of $485.24, indicating a potential upside of 4.57%. Given Dell Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Dell Technologies is more favorable than AstroNova.

Profitability

This table compares AstroNova and Dell Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AstroNova	-0.88%	2.94%	1.61%
Dell Technologies	6.28%	-366.90%	8.65%

Dividends

AstroNova pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Dell Technologies pays an annual dividend of $2.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. AstroNova pays out -155.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Dell Technologies pays out 20.0% 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. Dell Technologies has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. AstroNova is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

AstroNova has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dell Technologies has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

43.0% of AstroNova shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.4% of Dell Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 12.6% of AstroNova shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 41.5% of Dell Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AstroNova and Dell Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AstroNova	$152.17 million	1.49	-$2.38 million	($0.18)	-161.06
Dell Technologies	$113.54 billion	2.65	$5.94 billion	$12.59	36.86

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

Summary

Dell Technologies beats AstroNova on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AstroNova

AstroNova, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes specialty printers, and data acquisition and analysis systems in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Product Identification (PI) and Test & Measurement (T&M). The PI segment offers tabletop and production-ready digital color label printers, and OEM printing systems under the QuickLabel brand; digital color label mini-presses and inline printing systems under the TrojanLabel brand; and label materials, tags material, inks, toners, and thermal transfer ribbions under the GetLabels brand. This segment also develops and licenses various specialized software programs to design and manage labels and print images; and provides training and support. This segment serves chemicals, cosmetics, food and beverage, medical products, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and other industries; and brand owners, label converters, commercial printers, and packaging manufacturers. The T&M segment offers airborne printing solutions, such as ToughWriter used to print hard copies of navigation maps, arrival and departure information, flight itineraries, weather maps, performance data, passenger data, and various air traffic control data; ToughSwitch, an ethernet switches used to connect multiple computers or Ethernet devices; TMX data acquisition systems; Daxus DXS-100 distributed data acquisition platform; SmartCorder DDX100 portable data acquisition systems for facility and field testing; and Everest EV-5000, a digital strip chart recording system used primarily in aerospace and defense. This segment serves aerospace and aerospace and defense, automotive, commercial airline, energy, manufacturing, and transportation industries. The company was formerly known as Astro-Med, Inc. and changed its name to AstroNova, Inc. in May 2016. AstroNova, Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in West Warwick, Rhode Island.

About Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, sells, and supports various comprehensive and integrated solutions, products, and services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and Client Solutions Group (CSG). The ISG segment provides modern and traditional storage solutions, including all-flash arrays, scale-out file, object platforms, hyper-converged infrastructure, and software-defined storage; and general-purpose and AI-optimized servers. This segment also offers networking products and services comprising wide area network infrastructure, data center and edge networking switches, and cables and optics that help its business customers to transform and modernize their infrastructure, mobilize and enrich end-user experiences, and accelerate business applications and processes; software and peripherals; and consulting, support, and deployment services. The CSG segment provides desktops, workstations, and notebooks; displays, docking stations, keyboards, mice, webcam, and audio devices; and third-party software and peripherals, as well as configuration, support and deployment, and extended warranty services. It is involved in cybersecurity technology-driven security solutions to prevent security breaches, detect malicious activity, respond rapidly when a security breach occurs, and identify emerging threats; originating, collecting, and servicing customer financing arrangements; and the resale of VMware products and services. The company serves enterprises, public institutions, and small and medium-sized businesses through its direct sales channel, value-added resellers, system integrators, distributors, and retailers. The company was formerly known as Denali Holding Inc. and changed its name to Dell Technologies Inc. in August 2016. Dell Technologies Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas.