Critical Review: Wabash National (WNC) versus Its Peers

Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) is one of 71 public companies in the “AUTO/TRUCK – ORIG” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Wabash National to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, dividends, valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

Wabash National has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wabash National’s rivals have a beta of 3.23, suggesting that their average share price is 223% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Wabash National and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wabash National	0	1	0	0	2.00
Wabash National Competitors	556	3134	4418	195	2.51

Wabash National presently has a consensus price target of $9.50, indicating a potential downside of 14.91%. As a group, “AUTO/TRUCK – ORIG” companies have a potential upside of 14.17%. Given Wabash National’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Wabash National has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Wabash National and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wabash National	$1.95 billion	-$284.07 million	-7.20
Wabash National Competitors	$6.70 billion	$183.38 million	11.42

Wabash National’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Wabash National. Wabash National is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Wabash National pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Wabash National pays out -20.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “AUTO/TRUCK – ORIG” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.4% and pay out 38.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Wabash National is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.1% of Wabash National shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.2% of shares of all “AUTO/TRUCK – ORIG” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Wabash National shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of shares of all “AUTO/TRUCK – ORIG” companies are owned by 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.

Profitability

This table compares Wabash National and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wabash National	-3.93%	3.49%	0.84%
Wabash National Competitors	-1,305.32%	-136.76%	-5.83%

Summary

Wabash National rivals beat Wabash National on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Wabash National

Wabash National Corporation provides connected solutions for the transportation, logistics, and distribution industries primarily in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Transportation Solutions and Parts & Services. The Transportation Solutions segment designs and manufactures transportation-related equipment and products dry and refrigerated van trailers, platform trailers, tank trailers, and truck-mounted tanks; truck bodies for dry-freight transportation; cargo and cargo XL bodies for commercial applications; refrigerated truck bodies; platform truck bodies; and used trailers, as well as laminated hardwood oak flooring products. The Parts & Services segment provides aftermarket parts and services; steel flatbed bodies, truck body mounting, shelving for package delivery, partitions, roof racks, hitches, liftgates, thermal solutions, and others; truck body repair parts; and door repair and replacement, collision repair, and basic maintenance services. It also develops and scales a digital marketplace for the transportation and logistics distribution industry; operates a parts and services distribution platform; and stainless steel storage tanks and silos, mixers, and processors for the dairy, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical, craft brewing, and biotech markets; trailers as a service; and composite products, including truck bodies, overhead doors, and other industrial application products, as well as used trailers. The company offers its products under the Wabash, DuraPlate, DuraPlateHD, DuraPlate AeroSkirt, and AeroSkirt CX brands, as well as EcoNex brand. It serves its products to truckload common carriers, leasing companies, private fleet carriers, less-than-truckload common carriers, and package carriers. Wabash National Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana.