Reviewing LiqTech International (LIQT) & CECO Environmental Corp. (CECE)

LiqTech International (NYSE: LIQT) and CECO Environmental Corp. (NASDAQ:CECE) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, dividends, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares LiqTech International and CECO Environmental Corp.’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LiqTech International	$12.15 million	1.51	-$5.38 million	N/A	N/A
CECO Environmental Corp.	$388.10 million	0.65	$49.13 million	($1.16)	-6.27

CECO Environmental Corp. has higher revenue and earnings than LiqTech International.

Dividends

CECO Environmental Corp. pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. LiqTech International does not pay a dividend. CECO Environmental Corp. pays out -25.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for LiqTech International and CECO Environmental Corp., as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LiqTech International	0	0	0	0	N/A
CECO Environmental Corp.	0	3	0	1	2.50

CECO Environmental Corp. has a consensus target price of $12.33, indicating a potential upside of 69.65%. Given CECO Environmental Corp.’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe CECO Environmental Corp. is more favorable than LiqTech International.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

69.3% of CECO Environmental Corp. shares are held by institutional investors. 14.3% of CECO Environmental Corp. 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.

Profitability

This table compares LiqTech International and CECO Environmental Corp.’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LiqTech International	-28.07%	-57.07%	-30.07%
CECO Environmental Corp.	-10.27%	14.60%	5.97%

Summary

CECO Environmental Corp. beats LiqTech International on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

LiqTech International Company Profile

LiqTech International, Inc. is a clean technology company that provides technologies for gas and liquid purification by manufacturing ceramic silicon carbide filters. The Company develops and manufactures products of re-crystallized silicon carbide. It specializes in two business areas, which include ceramic membranes for liquid filtration, and diesel particulate filters (DPFs) for the control of soot exhaust particles from diesel engines. Under the LiqTech, Cometas and Provital brand names, it manufactures and sells ceramic silicon carbide membranes and systems for liquid filtration using silicon carbide technology that focus on hydrocarbon production-derived contaminated water and pre-filtration for reverse osmosis. It offers DPFs for exhaust emission control solutions to the retrofit and the original equipment manufacturer markets. It also offers Kiln furniture, which refers to various items used in a kiln to support ceramics that maximizes the number of items for each firing.

CECO Environmental Corp. Company Profile

CECO Environmental Corp. is a provider of engineered technologies to the environmental, energy, and fluid handling and filtration industrial segments. The Company is focused on engineering, designing, building and installing systems that capture, clean and destroy airborne contaminants from industrial facilities, as well as equipment that controls emissions from such facilities, and fluid handling and filtration systems. Its Environmental segment is engaged in the design and manufacture of product recovery and air pollution control technologies that enable its customers to meet compliance targets for toxic emissions, fumes, volatile organic compounds, process and industrial odors. Its Energy segment provides customized solutions for the power and petrochemical industry. Its Fluid Handling and Filtration segment provides the design and manufacture of pump, filtration and fume exhaust solutions.