nVent Electric (NYSE:NVT) vs. Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) Head to Head Survey

nVent Electric (NYSE:NVT) and Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for nVent Electric and Fabrinet, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
nVent Electric	0	1	11	0	2.92
Fabrinet	0	4	5	0	2.56

nVent Electric presently has a consensus price target of $144.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.81%. Fabrinet has a consensus price target of $587.50, indicating a potential downside of 16.64%. Given nVent Electric’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe nVent Electric is more favorable than Fabrinet.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares nVent Electric and Fabrinet”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
nVent Electric	$3.89 billion	5.93	$710.20 million	$4.30	33.22
Fabrinet	$3.42 billion	7.39	$332.53 million	$10.44	67.51

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

Risk and Volatility

nVent Electric has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fabrinet has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.1% of nVent Electric shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of Fabrinet shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of nVent Electric shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Fabrinet shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares nVent Electric and Fabrinet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
nVent Electric	18.25%	15.18%	8.12%
Fabrinet	9.69%	18.69%	12.96%

Summary

nVent Electric beats Fabrinet on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About nVent Electric

nVent Electric plc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, markets, installs, and services electrical connection and protection solutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Enclosures, Electrical & Fastening Solutions, and Thermal Management. The Enclosures segment provides solutions to protect electronics and data in mission critical applications, including data solutions. This segment also offers digital and automation solutions, system integrations, and global services. The Electrical & Fastening Solutions segment provides solutions that connect and protect power and data infrastructure. This segment also offers power connections, fastening solutions, cable management solutions, grounding and bonding systems, and tools and test instruments. The Thermal Management segment offers heat management solutions that protect people and assets. This segment includes heat tracing for freeze protection and process temperature maintenance and control; pipe freeze protection, surface deicing, hot water temperature maintenance, floor heating, fire-rated wiring, and leak detection; and heat trace systems, connected controls, remote monitoring, and annual service programs. The company markets its products through electrical distributors, contractors, and original equipment manufacturers under the CADDY, ERICO, GARDNER BENDER, HOFFMAN, ILSCO, RAYCHEM, SCHROFF, and TRACER brand names. Its products are used for various applications, such as industrial, commercial and residential, infrastructure, and energy. nVent Electric plc was founded in 1903 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

About Fabrinet

Fabrinet provides optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical, and electronic manufacturing services in North America, the Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company offers a range of advanced optical and electro-mechanical capabilities in the manufacturing process, including process design and engineering, supply chain management, manufacturing, printed circuit board assembly, advanced packaging, integration, final assembly, and testing. Its products include switching products, including reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers, optical amplifiers, modulators, and other optical components and modules that enable network managers to route voice, video, and data communications traffic through fiber optic cables at various wavelengths, speeds, and over various distances. The company's products also comprise tunable lasers, transceivers, and transponders; and active optical cables, which provide high-speed interconnect capabilities for data centers and computing clusters, as well as Infiniband, Ethernet, fiber channel, and optical backplane connectivity. In addition, it provides solid state, diode-pumped, gas, and fiber lasers used in semiconductor processing, biotechnology and medical device, metrology, and material processing industries; and differential pressure, micro-gyro, fuel, and other sensors used in automobiles, as well as non-contact temperature measurement sensors for the medical industry. Further, the company designs and fabricates application-specific crystals, lenses, prisms, mirrors, laser components, and substrates; and other custom and standard borosilicate, clear fused quartz, and synthetic fused silica glass products. It serves original equipment manufacturers of optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, automotive components, medical devices, and sensors. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Grand Cayman, the Cayman Islands.