Clean Diesel Technologies (NASDAQ: CDTI) and Briggs & Stratton Corporation (NYSE:BGG) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
1.1% of Clean Diesel Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.2% of Briggs & Stratton Corporation shares are held by institutional investors. 5.3% of Clean Diesel Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.7% of Briggs & Stratton Corporation shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Dividends
Briggs & Stratton Corporation pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Clean Diesel Technologies does not pay a dividend. Briggs & Stratton Corporation pays out 43.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Briggs & Stratton Corporation has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years.
Profitability
This table compares Clean Diesel Technologies and Briggs & Stratton Corporation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Clean Diesel Technologies | -72.31% | -116.29% | -34.01% |
| Briggs & Stratton Corporation | 3.17% | 11.66% | 3.72% |
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Clean Diesel Technologies and Briggs & Stratton Corporation’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Clean Diesel Technologies | $35.30 million | 0.91 | -$6.06 million | ($3.36) | -0.61 |
| Briggs & Stratton Corporation | $1.79 billion | 0.49 | $142.47 million | $1.30 | 15.65 |
Briggs & Stratton Corporation has higher revenue and earnings than Clean Diesel Technologies. Clean Diesel Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Briggs & Stratton Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Clean Diesel Technologies and Briggs & Stratton Corporation, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Clean Diesel Technologies | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.67 |
| Briggs & Stratton Corporation | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
Clean Diesel Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $4.17, indicating a potential upside of 104.25%. Briggs & Stratton Corporation has a consensus target price of $25.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.85%. Given Clean Diesel Technologies’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Clean Diesel Technologies is more favorable than Briggs & Stratton Corporation.
Volatility and Risk
Clean Diesel Technologies has a beta of 2.82, suggesting that its share price is 182% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Briggs & Stratton Corporation has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Briggs & Stratton Corporation beats Clean Diesel Technologies on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
Clean Diesel Technologies Company Profile
Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. commercializes its material technology by manufacturing and distributing light duty vehicle catalysts, and heavy duty diesel emissions control systems and products to automakers, distributors, integrators and retrofitters. The Company operates through two business division segments: Catalyst, which develops and produces catalysts to reduce emissions from gasoline, diesel and natural gas combustion engines, and Heavy Duty Diesel Systems, which designs and manufactures verified exhaust emissions control solutions for a range of heavy duty diesel applications. It develops materials incorporating various base metals that replace platinum group metals (PGM) and rare earth metals in coatings on vehicle catalytic converters. Its technologies include Spinel, base-metal activated rhodium on Support, mixed phase catalyst, synergized PGM diesel oxidation catalyst (SPGM DOC), Platinum Plus, ARIS, and Exhaust Gas Recirculation and Selective Catalytic Reduction.
Briggs & Stratton Corporation Company Profile
Briggs & Stratton Corporation is a producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. The Company designs, manufactures, markets, sells and services the various products for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) around the world. It also markets and sells related service parts and accessories for its engines. Its subsidiary is a marketer of pressure washers, and it is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of power generation, lawn and garden, turf care and job site products through its Simplicity, Snapper, Snapper Pro, Ferris, PowerBoss, Allmand, Billy Goat, Murray, Branco and Victa brands. It operates in over 100 countries on six continents. It operates through two segments: Engines and Products. Its Engines segment sells engines around the world, primarily to OEMs of lawn and garden equipment and other gasoline engine-powered equipment. Its Products segment designs, manufactures and markets a range of outdoor power equipment, job site products and related accessories.
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