Columbus McKinnon Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCO) and Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) are both small-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, profitabiliy, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Columbus McKinnon Corporation and Astec Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Columbus McKinnon Corporation | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Astec Industries | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
Columbus McKinnon Corporation presently has a consensus price target of $32.67, suggesting a potential upside of 26.61%. Astec Industries has a consensus price target of $85.00, suggesting a potential upside of 69.09%. Given Astec Industries’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Astec Industries is more favorable than Columbus McKinnon Corporation.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
84.9% of Columbus McKinnon Corporation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.4% of Astec Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of Columbus McKinnon Corporation shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Astec Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares Columbus McKinnon Corporation and Astec Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Columbus McKinnon Corporation | 1.41% | 9.03% | 3.32% |
| Astec Industries | 4.08% | 7.40% | 5.64% |
Volatility & Risk
Columbus McKinnon Corporation has a beta of 1.92, meaning that its share price is 92% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Astec Industries has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Dividends
Columbus McKinnon Corporation pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Astec Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Columbus McKinnon Corporation pays out 35.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Astec Industries pays out 19.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Astec Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Columbus McKinnon Corporation and Astec Industries’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Columbus McKinnon Corporation | $637.12 million | 0.92 | $66.93 million | $0.45 | 57.33 |
| Astec Industries | $1.19 billion | 0.97 | $100.32 million | $2.10 | 23.94 |
Astec Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Columbus McKinnon Corporation. Astec Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Columbus McKinnon Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Astec Industries beats Columbus McKinnon Corporation on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Columbus McKinnon Corporation
Columbus McKinnon Corporation is a global designer, manufacturer and marketer of hoists, actuators, cranes, rigging tools, digital power control systems, and other material handling products serving various commercial and industrial end user markets. The Company’s products include various electric, air-powered, lever, and hand hoists, hoist trolleys, winches, industrial crane systems, such as steel bridge, gantry and jib cranes and aluminum work station cranes; alloy and carbon steel chain; forged attachments, such as hooks, shackles, textile slings, clamps, logging tools and load binders; mechanical and electromechanical actuators and rotary unions; below-the-hook special purpose lifters and tire shredders; power and motion control systems, such as alternate current (AC) and direct current (DC) drive systems, radio remote controls, push button pendant stations, brakes, and collision avoidance and power delivery subsystems.
About Astec Industries
Astec Industries, Inc. designs, engineers, manufactures and markets equipment and components used primarily in road building and related construction activities. Its segments include Infrastructure Group, Aggregate and Mining Group and Energy Group. The Infrastructure Group segment is made up of five business units, including Astec, Inc., Roadtec, Inc., Carlson Paving Products, Inc., Astec Mobile Machinery GmbH and Astec Australia Pty Ltd. Its Aggregate and Mining Group consists of eight business units that are focused on designing and manufacturing heavy processing equipment, as well as servicing and supplying parts for the aggregate, metallic mining, recycling, ports and bulk handling markets. Its Energy Group includes five business units focused on supplying heavy equipment, such as heaters, drilling rigs, concrete plants, wood chippers and grinders, pump trailers, storage equipment and related parts to the oil and gas, construction and water well industries.
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