Financial Contrast: Proto Labs (NYSE:PRLB) & Gencor Industries (NASDAQ:GENC)

Gencor Industries (NASDAQ:GENC) and Proto Labs (NYSE:PRLB) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

84.5% of Proto Labs shares are owned by institutional investors. 30.4% of Gencor Industries shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Proto Labs shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Gencor Industries and Proto Labs’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gencor Industries	14.33%	8.60%	8.01%
Proto Labs	6.04%	5.40%	4.73%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Gencor Industries and Proto Labs, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gencor Industries	0	1	1	1	3.00
Proto Labs	0	1	4	0	2.80

Gencor Industries presently has a consensus price target of $19.30, indicating a potential upside of 12.87%. Proto Labs has a consensus price target of $100.50, indicating a potential upside of 45.55%. Given Proto Labs’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Proto Labs is more favorable than Gencor Industries.

Volatility and Risk

Gencor Industries has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Proto Labs has a beta of 1.38, suggesting that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Gencor Industries and Proto Labs”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gencor Industries	$110.01 million	2.28	$14.67 million	$1.16	14.74
Proto Labs	$533.13 million	3.10	$21.24 million	$1.43	48.29

Proto Labs has higher revenue and earnings than Gencor Industries. Gencor Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Proto Labs, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Proto Labs beats Gencor Industries on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gencor Industries

Gencor Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells heavy machinery used in the production of highway construction materials and environmental control equipment. It offers hot-mix asphalt plants to produce asphalt paving materials; related asphalt plant equipment, including hot-mix storage silos, fabric filtration systems, cold feed bins, and other plant components; and a range of mobile batch plants. The company also provides combustion systems that transform solid, liquid, or gaseous fuels into usable energy, or burn multiple fuels in asphalt and aggregate drying industries; and combustion systems for rotary dryers, kilns, fume and liquid incinerators, and fuel heaters, as well as industrial incinerators. In addition, it offers thermal fluid heat transfer systems that transfer heat for storage, heating, and pumping viscous materials, such as asphalt, chemicals, heavy oils, etc. in various industrial and petrochemical applications; specialty storage tanks for various industrial uses; and asphalt pavers under the Blaw-Knox brand. The company sells its products primarily to the highway construction industry through its sales representatives, and independent dealers and agents worldwide. The company was formerly known as Mechtron International Corporation and changed its name to Gencor Industries, Inc. in 1987. Gencor Industries, Inc. was founded in 1894 and is based in Orlando, Florida.

About Proto Labs

Proto Labs, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital manufacturer of custom parts in the United States and Europe. The company offers injection molding; computer numerical control machining; three-dimensional printing; and sheet metal fabrication products. It serves developers and engineers, who use 3D computer-aided design software to design products across a range of end-markets. Proto Labs, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Maple Plain, Minnesota.