Contrasting FTAI Aviation (NASDAQ:FTAI) & Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW)

Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW) and FTAI Aviation (NASDAQ:FTAI) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Curtiss-Wright has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FTAI Aviation has a beta of 1.51, indicating that its share price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Curtiss-Wright and FTAI Aviation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Curtiss-Wright	14.81%	20.49%	10.19%
FTAI Aviation	15.94%	139.59%	11.26%

Dividends

Curtiss-Wright pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. FTAI Aviation pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Curtiss-Wright pays out 7.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. FTAI Aviation pays out 43.5% 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. Curtiss-Wright has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Curtiss-Wright and FTAI Aviation, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Curtiss-Wright	0	4	3	0	2.43
FTAI Aviation	0	2	9	0	2.82

Curtiss-Wright presently has a consensus target price of $765.71, suggesting a potential upside of 35.23%. FTAI Aviation has a consensus target price of $320.11, suggesting a potential upside of 63.09%. Given FTAI Aviation’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe FTAI Aviation is more favorable than Curtiss-Wright.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.7% of Curtiss-Wright shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.0% of FTAI Aviation shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Curtiss-Wright shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of FTAI Aviation shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Curtiss-Wright and FTAI Aviation”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Curtiss-Wright	$3.50 billion	5.98	$484.23 million	$14.53	38.97
FTAI Aviation	$2.51 billion	8.04	$501.06 million	$4.60	42.67

FTAI Aviation has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Curtiss-Wright. Curtiss-Wright is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than FTAI Aviation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

FTAI Aviation beats Curtiss-Wright on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Curtiss-Wright

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides engineered products, solutions, and services mainly to aerospace and defense, commercial power, process, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics, and Naval & Power. The Aerospace & Industrial segment offers industrial and specialty vehicle products, such as power management electronics, traction inverters, transmission shifters, and control systems; sensors, controls, and electro-mechanical actuation components used on commercial and military aircraft; and surface technology services including shot peening, laser peening, and engineered coatings. The Defense Electronics segment provides commercial off-the-shelf embedded computing board-level modules and processing equipment, data acquisition and flight test instrumentation equipment, integrated subsystems, instrumentation and control systems, tactical communications solutions; and electronic stabilization products, and weapons handling systems; avionics and electronics; flight test equipment; and aircraft data management solutions. The Naval & Power segment offers main coolant pumps, power-dense compact motors, generators, steam turbines, valves, and secondary propulsion systems; energy absorbers, retractable hook cable systems, net-stanchion systems and mobile systems to support fixed land-based arresting systems; hardware, valves, fastening systems, specialized containment doors, airlock hatches, and spent fuel management products; reactor coolant pumps and control rod drive mechanisms for commercial nuclear power plants, as well as various nuclear reactor technologies. This segment furnishes severe-service valve technologies and services, heat exchanger repair, and piping test and isolation products, and offers ship repair and maintenance for the U.S. navy. Curtiss-Wright Corporation was incorporated in 1929 and is headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina.

About FTAI Aviation

FTAI Aviation Ltd. owns and acquires aviation and offshore energy equipment for the transportation of goods and people worldwide. It operates through two segments, Aviation Leasing and Aerospace Products. The Aviation Leasing segment owns and manages aviation assets, including aircraft and aircraft engines, which it leases and sells to customers. As of December 31, 2023, this segment owned and managed 363 aviation assets consisting of 96 commercial aircraft and 267 engines, including eight aircraft and seventeen engines that were located in Russia. The Aerospace Products segment develops, manufactures, repairs, and sells aircraft engines and aftermarket components for aircraft engines. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York, New York.