Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) versus Holley (NYSE:HLLY) Financial Contrast

Holley (NYSE:HLLY) and Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Holley and Wabash National’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Holley	3.89%	5.46%	2.09%
Wabash National	-5.48%	-36.59%	-10.27%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Holley and Wabash National, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Holley	1	1	4	1	2.71
Wabash National	1	1	2	0	2.25

Holley currently has a consensus price target of $4.90, suggesting a potential upside of 83.18%. Wabash National has a consensus price target of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 43.30%. Given Holley’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Holley is more favorable than Wabash National.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

39.7% of Holley shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.0% of Wabash National shares are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of Holley shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Wabash National shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Holley and Wabash National”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Holley	$613.51 million	0.53	$19.17 million	$0.19	14.08
Wabash National	$1.54 billion	0.33	$211.45 million	($1.93)	-6.51

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

Risk and Volatility

Holley has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wabash National has a beta of 1.43, meaning that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Holley beats Wabash National on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Holley

Holley Inc. operates as designer, manufacturer, and marketer of automotive aftermarket products for car and truck enthusiasts in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China. Its products span various automotive platforms and sells across multiple channels. The company's performance automotive products include carburetors, fuel pumps, fuel injection systems, nitrous oxide injection systems, superchargers, exhaust headers, mufflers, distributors, ignition components, engine tuners, automotive performance plumbing products; and exhaust products, as well as shifters, converters, transmission kits, transmissions, tuners, and automotive software. It also offers brakes and brake systems, vehicle restoration parts, helmets, head and neck restraints, seat belts, fire suits, and electronic control and monitoring systems. The company sells its products under the Holley, Holley EFI, MSD, Simpson, Powerteq, Accel, and Flowmaster through DTC, E-tailer, warehouse distributor, traditional retailer, and jobber/ installer channels. Holley Inc. was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

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.