Reviewing Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) and Karman (NYSE:KRMN)

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) and Karman (NYSE:KRMN) are both aerospace companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Woodward and Karman’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Woodward	12.85%	20.12%	10.72%
Karman	5.73%	14.94%	5.11%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Woodward and Karman, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Woodward	0	4	11	1	2.81
Karman	1	1	7	2	2.91

Woodward presently has a consensus price target of $393.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.01%. Karman has a consensus price target of $105.60, suggesting a potential upside of 93.29%. Given Karman’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Karman is more favorable than Woodward.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

81.2% of Woodward shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Woodward shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.8% of Karman shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Woodward has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Karman has a beta of 0.33, meaning that its stock price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Woodward and Karman”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Woodward	$3.57 billion	5.76	$442.11 million	$8.35	41.28
Karman	$522.59 million	13.85	$17.37 million	$0.23	237.53

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

Summary

Woodward beats Karman on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Woodward

Woodward, Inc. designs, manufactures, and services control solutions for the aerospace and industrial markets worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace and Industrial. The Aerospace segment provides fuel pumps, metering units, actuators, air valves, specialty valves, fuel nozzles, and thrust reverser actuation systems for turbine engines and nacelles, and flight deck controls, actuators, servocontrols, motors, and sensors for aircraft. These products are used on commercial and private aircraft and rotorcraft, as well as on military fixed-wing aircraft and rotorcraft, guided weapons, and other defense systems. It also provides aftermarket maintenance, repair and overhaul, and other services to commercial airlines, repair facilities, military depots, third party repair shops, and other end users. This segment sells its products to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), tier-one suppliers, and contractors, as well as through aftermarket sales of components, such as provisioning spares and replacements. The Industrial segment offers actuators, valves, pumps, fuel injection systems, solenoids, ignition systems, speed controls, electronics and software, and sensors. These products are used on industrial gas turbines, steam turbines, compressors, and reciprocating engines. This segment sells its aftermarket products, and other related services to OEMs through an independent network of distributors, as well as directly to end users. The company was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado.

About Karman

We specialize in the upfront design, testing, manufacturing, and sale of mission-critical systems for existing and emerging missile and defense, and space programs. Our integrated payload protection, propulsion, and interstage system solutions are deployed across a wide variety of existing and emerging programs supporting important Department of Defense (“DoD”) and space sector initiatives. We estimate that no single program accounted for more than 10% of sales for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 or the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, with revenue from over 100 active programs supporting current production and next-generation space, missile, hypersonic, and defense applications. We believe that our engineering expertise, vertically integrated production capabilities, and track record with critical piece part and subcomponent manufacturing positions us to successfully serve our prime customers who rely on us to deliver technical design and scaled manufacturing for integrated systems that are required to withstand extreme environments and meet stringent performance requirements. Our highly engineered solutions are organized into three key families: Payload Protection and Deployment Systems, Aerodynamic Interstage Systems, and Propulsion Systems: • Payload Protection and Deployment Systems: full design and manufacturing of the top section of a booster, launch vehicle, payload, or missile system • Aerodynamic Interstage Systems: supporting metallic and composite subsystems designed for aerodynamics and interstage separation • Propulsion Systems: offering of integrated solid rocket motors and supporting subsystems, launch systems, and ablative composites Our solutions are deployed across three growing, core end markets: Hypersonics & Strategic Missile Defense, Missile & Integrated Defense Systems, and Space & Launch. We serve a diverse customer base within these end-markets where we maintain long-standing relationships and engineering partnerships. We believe that our differentiated technical design, expertise, intellectual property, and heritage of mission success provides us with a value proposition that would be difficult to replicate by our current and potential future competitors. By utilizing our vertically integrated and concept-to-production capabilities along with a highly targeted acquisition strategy, we have created a business model aimed at creating long-term, sustainable value for our customers, the programs we support, and the warfighter. — Our business approach combines both strong organic growth and our proven buy, build, and integrate acquisition strategy. Karman Space and Defense is defined by four core acquisitions that have been fully integrated into our business to create a synergistic platform with complementary capabilities and robust intellectual property (“IP”). Our formation began with the merger of Aerospace Engineering, LLC (“AEC”) and AMRO Fabricating Corporation (“AMRO”) in October 2020, which allowed us to become one of the largest independently owned suppliers focused on manufacturing complex systems for the space and missile markets. Shortly thereafter, we acquired American Automated Engineering, Inc. (“AAE”) (December 2020), a manufacturer of high-temperature composites, and Systima Technologies (“Systima”) (September 2021), a specialist in design and integration of energetic and mechanical systems into the structural design of mission-critical space and hypersonic systems. Since inception, we have completed three additional, complementary acquisitions focused on further expanding our capability set. Altogether, these acquisitions have: • United complementary capabilities that are critical to Karman’s “concept-to- production capabilities” offering to blue chip missile and space primes • Provided a storied heritage of trusted, mission success encompassing 40+ years, which we deem vital to success in our industry • Created a platform and strategic basis to continue to seek accretive, complementary acquisitions — Today, Karman operates approximately 730,000 square feet of design, engineering, and manufacturing space, supporting a single Karman go-to-market strategy. We continue to evaluate opportunities to support anticipated growth and have recently invested to outfit a new 30,000 square foot facility in Decatur, AL to primarily service a new customer. We currently operate as a Delaware limited liability company under the name TCFIII Spaceco Holdings LLC (d/b/a Karman Space and Defense) (otherwise referred to herein as “Karman LLC”), which is a holding company that holds all of the equity interests of our operating subsidiaries. Karman LLC was formed August 20, 2020. Prior to the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, Karman LLC will convert to a Delaware corporation and we will change our name to Karman Holdings Inc. Our principal offices are located at 5351 Argosy Ave, Huntington Beach, CA.