Critical Survey: AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) vs. Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL)

Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) and AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Dell Technologies and AstroNova’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dell Technologies	6.28%	-366.90%	8.65%
AstroNova	-0.88%	2.94%	1.61%

Risk and Volatility

Dell Technologies has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstroNova has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Dell Technologies and AstroNova, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dell Technologies	1	10	20	1	2.66
AstroNova	1	0	0	0	1.00

Dell Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $496.71, indicating a potential upside of 12.38%. Given Dell Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Dell Technologies is more favorable than AstroNova.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

76.4% of Dell Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.0% of AstroNova shares are owned by institutional investors. 41.5% of Dell Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of AstroNova shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Dell Technologies and AstroNova”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dell Technologies	$113.54 billion	2.52	$5.94 billion	$12.59	35.11
AstroNova	$150.51 million	1.51	-$2.38 million	($0.18)	-160.67

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

Summary

Dell Technologies beats AstroNova on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, sells, and supports various comprehensive and integrated solutions, products, and services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and Client Solutions Group (CSG). The ISG segment provides modern and traditional storage solutions, including all-flash arrays, scale-out file, object platforms, hyper-converged infrastructure, and software-defined storage; and general-purpose and AI-optimized servers. This segment also offers networking products and services comprising wide area network infrastructure, data center and edge networking switches, and cables and optics that help its business customers to transform and modernize their infrastructure, mobilize and enrich end-user experiences, and accelerate business applications and processes; software and peripherals; and consulting, support, and deployment services. The CSG segment provides desktops, workstations, and notebooks; displays, docking stations, keyboards, mice, webcam, and audio devices; and third-party software and peripherals, as well as configuration, support and deployment, and extended warranty services. It is involved in cybersecurity technology-driven security solutions to prevent security breaches, detect malicious activity, respond rapidly when a security breach occurs, and identify emerging threats; originating, collecting, and servicing customer financing arrangements; and the resale of VMware products and services. The company serves enterprises, public institutions, and small and medium-sized businesses through its direct sales channel, value-added resellers, system integrators, distributors, and retailers. The company was formerly known as Denali Holding Inc. and changed its name to Dell Technologies Inc. in August 2016. Dell Technologies Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas.

About AstroNova

AstroNova, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes specialty printers, and data acquisition and analysis systems in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Product Identification (PI) and Test & Measurement (T&M). The PI segment offers tabletop and production-ready digital color label printers, and OEM printing systems under the QuickLabel brand; digital color label mini-presses and inline printing systems under the TrojanLabel brand; and label materials, tags material, inks, toners, and thermal transfer ribbions under the GetLabels brand. This segment also develops and licenses various specialized software programs to design and manage labels and print images; and provides training and support. This segment serves chemicals, cosmetics, food and beverage, medical products, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and other industries; and brand owners, label converters, commercial printers, and packaging manufacturers. The T&M segment offers airborne printing solutions, such as ToughWriter used to print hard copies of navigation maps, arrival and departure information, flight itineraries, weather maps, performance data, passenger data, and various air traffic control data; ToughSwitch, an ethernet switches used to connect multiple computers or Ethernet devices; TMX data acquisition systems; Daxus DXS-100 distributed data acquisition platform; SmartCorder DDX100 portable data acquisition systems for facility and field testing; and Everest EV-5000, a digital strip chart recording system used primarily in aerospace and defense. This segment serves aerospace and aerospace and defense, automotive, commercial airline, energy, manufacturing, and transportation industries. The company was formerly known as Astro-Med, Inc. and changed its name to AstroNova, Inc. in May 2016. AstroNova, Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in West Warwick, Rhode Island.