AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) and Creative Technology (OTCMKTS:CREAF) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, earnings and valuation.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for AstroNova and Creative Technology, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| AstroNova | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Creative Technology | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
Risk and Volatility
AstroNova has a beta of 0.41, suggesting that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Creative Technology has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
49.2% of AstroNova shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.3% of AstroNova shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 33.8% of Creative Technology shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares AstroNova and Creative Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| AstroNova | -0.37% | -0.63% | -0.39% |
| Creative Technology | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares AstroNova and Creative Technology’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| AstroNova | $133.45 million | 0.42 | $1.76 million | $0.24 | 32.92 |
| Creative Technology | $66.07 million | 1.84 | $40.42 million | N/A | N/A |
Creative Technology has lower revenue, but higher earnings than AstroNova.
Summary
Creative Technology beats AstroNova on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.
About AstroNova
AstroNova, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes specialty printers, and data acquisition and analysis systems in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Product Identification (PI) and Test & Measurement (T&M). The PI segment offers tabletop and production-ready digital color label printers, as well as specialty OEM printing systems under the QuickLabel brand; digital color label mini-presses and inline specialty printing systems under the TrojanLabel brand; and labels, tags, inks, toner, and thermal transfer materials under the GetLabels brand. This segment also develops and licenses various specialized software used to design and manage labels and print images, as well as manage and operate its printers and presses on an automated basis. It serves chemicals, cosmetics, food and beverage, medical products, pharmaceuticals, and other industries, as well as brand owners, label converters, commercial printers, and packaging manufacturers. The T&M segment offers airborne printing solutions, such as ToughWriter used to print hard copies of navigation maps, arrival and departure information, flight itineraries, weather maps, performance data, passenger data, and various air traffic control data; ToughSwitch, an ethernet switches used to connect multiple computers or Ethernet devices; PTA-45B cockpit printers; TMX high-speed data acquisition systems; Daxus DXS-100 distributed data acquisition systems; SmartCorder DDX100 portable data acquisition systems; EV-500, a digital strip chart recording system; and Miltope and RITEC branded airborne printers. This segment serves aerospace and defense, automotive, commercial airline, energy, manufacturing and transportation industries. The company was formerly known as Astro-Med, Inc. and changed its name to AstroNova, Inc. in May 2016. AstroNova, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
About Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and distributes digital entertainment products worldwide. The company primarily offers digitized sound and video boards, computers, and related multimedia and personal digital entertainment products. It also provides amplifiers, speakers, sound cards, gaming headsets, headphones, peripherals, accessories, software products, sound blasters, mice and keyboards, and others. In addition, the company offers multimedia solutions for personal computers and personal digital entertainment products. It markets its products and solutions to consumers and system integrators through a distribution network, including traditional marketing channels, original equipment manufacturers, and the Internet. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Singapore.
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