Preformed Line Products (NASDAQ:PLPC) and Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) Head to Head Survey

Preformed Line Products (NASDAQ:PLPC) and Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Preformed Line Products and Flex, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Preformed Line Products	0	0	1	0	3.00
Flex	0	1	8	0	2.89

Flex has a consensus price target of $59.71, indicating a potential downside of 7.10%. Given Flex’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Flex is more favorable than Preformed Line Products.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.2% of Preformed Line Products shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.3% of Flex shares are owned by institutional investors. 35.1% of Preformed Line Products shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Flex shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Preformed Line Products and Flex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Preformed Line Products	6.70%	9.69%	7.09%
Flex	3.42%	20.25%	5.47%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Preformed Line Products and Flex”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Preformed Line Products	$632.23 million	1.85	$37.09 million	$8.56	27.79
Flex	$25.81 billion	0.93	$838.00 million	$2.28	28.19

Flex has higher revenue and earnings than Preformed Line Products. Preformed Line Products is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Flex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Preformed Line Products has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flex has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Flex beats Preformed Line Products on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Preformed Line Products

Preformed Line Products Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures products and systems that are used in the construction and maintenance of overhead, ground-mounted, and underground networks for the energy, telecommunication, cable, data communication, and other industries. The company offers optical ground wire products to support, protect, terminate, and splice transmission and distribution lines, as well as bolted, welded, and compressed connectors for substations; and string hardware products, polymer insulators, wildlife protection, substation fittings, and motion control devices. It also provides rugged outside plant closures to protect and support wireline and wireless networks, such as copper cable or fiber optic cable from moisture, environmental hazards, and other contaminants; and hardware assemblies, pole line hardware, plastic products, cable dynamics/vibration solutions, interior/exterior connectors, tools, and urethane solutions that are used by energy, renewable energy, communications, cable, and special industries for various applications. The company serves public and private energy utilities and communication companies, cable operators, governmental agencies, contractors and subcontractors, distributors, and value-added resellers in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It markets its products through a direct sales force, as well as through manufacturing representatives. Preformed Line Products Company was incorporated in 1947 and is headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio.

About Flex

Flex Ltd. provides technology, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. It operates through three segments: Flex Agility Solutions (FAS), Flex Reliability Solutions (FRS), and Nextracker. The FAS segment offers flexible supply and manufacturing system comprising communications, enterprise and cloud solution, which includes data, edge, and communications infrastructure; lifestyle solution including appliances, consumer packaging, floorcare, micro mobility, and audio; and consumer devices, such as mobile and high velocity consumer devices. Its FRS segment provides complex ramps with specialized production models and critical environments, which comprise automotive including next generation mobility, autonomous, connectivity, electrification, and smart technologies; health solutions, such as medical devices, medical equipment, and drug delivery; and industrial solutions including capital equipment, industrial devices, and renewables and grid edge. The Nextracker segment offers solar tracker and software solutions, which are used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects. In addition, it provides a broad array of services including design and engineering, component services, rapid prototyping, fulfillment, and circular economy solutions. The company was formerly known as Flextronics International Ltd. and changed its name to Flex Ltd. in September 2016. Flex Ltd. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Singapore.