Head to Head Analysis: Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) vs. GEA Group (OTCMKTS:GEAGF)

GEA Group (OTCMKTS:GEAGF) and Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares GEA Group and Donaldson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GEA Group	7.70%	18.30%	7.57%
Donaldson	11.68%	28.68%	14.27%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for GEA Group and Donaldson, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GEA Group	0	1	0	1	3.00
Donaldson	0	2	3	0	2.60

Donaldson has a consensus price target of $101.00, indicating a potential upside of 15.60%. Given Donaldson’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Donaldson is more favorable than GEA Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

82.8% of Donaldson shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of Donaldson shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares GEA Group and Donaldson”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GEA Group	$6.22 billion	1.85	$468.41 million	$2.42	29.12
Donaldson	$3.89 billion	2.61	$453.80 million	$3.85	22.69

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

Risk and Volatility

GEA Group has a beta of 0.19, suggesting that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Donaldson has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Donaldson beats GEA Group on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GEA Group

GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft engages in the development and production of systems and components to the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. It operates through Separation & Flow Technologies, Liquid & Power Technologies, Food & Health Technologies, Farm Technologies, and Heating & Refrigeration Technologies segments. The Separation & Flow Technologies segment manufacture process-related components and machinery including notably separators, decanters, homogenizers, valves, and pumps. The Liquid & Power Technologies segment offers brewing systems, liquid processing and filling, concentration, precision fermentation, crystallization, purification, drying, powder handling, and packaging, as well as systems for emission control for dairy, beverage, food, chemical, and other industries. The Food & Health Technologies segment engages in the preparation, marination, and processing of meat, poultry, seafood, and vegan products, pasta and confectionery products, baking, slicing, packaging, and frozen food processing for food processing industry; and provides tablet presses for pharmaceutical industry. The Farm Technologies segment offers customer solution for milk production and livestock farming, which includes automatic milking and feeding system, conventional milking solutions, manure handling, and digital herd management tool. The Heating & Refrigeration Technologies segment provides energy solution in the field of industrial refrigeration and heating for an array of industries including food, beverage, dairy, and oil and gas. The company was formerly known as mg technologies ag and changed its name to GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft in 2005. GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.

About Donaldson

Donaldson Company, Inc. manufactures and sells filtration systems and replacement parts worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Mobile Solutions, Industrial Solutions, and Life Sciences. Its Mobile Solutions segment provides replacement filters for air and liquid filtration applications, such as air filtration systems; liquid filtration systems for fuel, lube, and hydraulic applications; exhaust and emissions systems and sensors; indicators; and monitoring systems. This segment sells its products to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the construction, mining, agriculture, aerospace, defense, and transportation markets; and to independent distributors, and OEM dealer networks. The company's Industrial Solutions segment offers dust, fume, and mist collectors; compressed air and industrial gasses purification systems; and hydraulic and lubricated rotating equipment applications, as well as gas and liquid filtration for industrial processes. This segment sells its products to various distributors, OEMs, and end-users. Its Life Sciences segment provides micro-environment gas and liquid filtration for food, beverage, and industrial processes; bioprocessing equipment, that includes bioreactors and fermenters; and bioprocessing consumables, such as chromatography devices, reagents and filters, and polytetrafluoroethylene membrane-based products, as well as specialized air and gas filtration systems for applications, including hard disk drives, semi-conductor manufacturing and sensors, battery systems, and powertrain components to OEMs and various end-users. The company was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota.