Contrasting Janel World Trade (OTCMKTS:JANL) and PowerFleet (NASDAQ:AIOT)

Janel World Trade (OTCMKTS:JANL) and PowerFleet (NASDAQ:AIOT) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Janel World Trade and PowerFleet”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Janel World Trade	$207.44 million	0.26	$5.41 million	$3.56	12.64
PowerFleet	$443.78 million	1.32	-$20.55 million	($0.16)	-27.31

Janel World Trade has higher earnings, but lower revenue than PowerFleet. PowerFleet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Janel World Trade, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Janel World Trade and PowerFleet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Janel World Trade	2.14%	17.29%	2.99%
PowerFleet	-4.63%	-1.33%	-0.66%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Janel World Trade and PowerFleet, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Janel World Trade	0	0	0	0	0.00
PowerFleet	1	1	3	0	2.40

PowerFleet has a consensus price target of $9.67, suggesting a potential upside of 121.21%. Given PowerFleet’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe PowerFleet is more favorable than Janel World Trade.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

73.4% of PowerFleet shares are owned by institutional investors. 69.0% of Janel World Trade shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of PowerFleet shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Janel World Trade has a beta of -0.28, suggesting that its share price is 128% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PowerFleet has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

About Janel World Trade

Janel Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides logistics services worldwide. It operates through three segments: Logistics, Life Sciences, and Manufacturing. The Logistics segment provides cargo transportation logistics management services, including freight forwarding by air, ocean, and land-based carriers; customs brokerage services; warehousing and distribution services; and other value added logistic services, as well as customs entry filing, cargo insurance procurement, logistics planning, product repackaging, and online shipment tracking services. The Life Sciences segment manufactures and distributes monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, diagnostic reagents, and other immuno-reagents for biomedical research; provides antibody manufacturing for academic and industry research scientists; and produces products for other life science companies on an original equipment manufacturer basis. The Manufacturing segment manufactures and distributes mixing equipment and apparatus for various industries, such as chemicals, inks, paints, construction, plastics, adhesives, cosmetics, food, and pharmaceuticals. The company was formerly known as Janel World Trade Ltd. and changed its name to Janel Corporation in April 2015. Janel Corporation was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About PowerFleet

PowerFleet, Inc. engages in the provision of fleet management solutions for logistics, industrial, and vehicles. It offers wireless Internet of Things and machine to machine solutions for securing, controlling, tracking, and managing enterprise assets such as industrial trucks, tractor trailers, containers, cargo, and vehicle and truck fleets. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Israel, and Other. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.