Critical Analysis: AerSale (NASDAQ:ASLE) versus Astronics (OTCMKTS:ATROB)

AerSale (NASDAQ:ASLE) and Astronics (OTCMKTS:ATROB) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Risk & Volatility

AerSale has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Astronics has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

69.5% of AerSale shares are held by institutional investors. 19.2% of AerSale shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.0% of Astronics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AerSale	$335.29 million	0.97	$8.57 million	$0.19	36.05
Astronics	$862.13 million	2.82	$29.36 million	$0.77	88.35

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for AerSale and Astronics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AerSale	1	3	0	0	1.75
Astronics	0	0	0	0	0.00

AerSale currently has a consensus price target of $7.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.19%. Given AerSale’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe AerSale is more favorable than Astronics.

Profitability

This table compares AerSale and Astronics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AerSale	2.56%	2.69%	1.73%
Astronics	3.41%	39.95%	11.66%

Summary

Astronics beats AerSale on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AerSale

AerSale Corporation provides aftermarket commercial aircraft, engines, and its parts to passenger and cargo airlines, leasing companies, original equipment manufacturers, and government and defense contractors, as well as maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) service providers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Asset Management Solutions and Technical Operations (TechOps). The Asset Management Solutions segment engages in the sale and lease of aircraft, engines, and airframes, as well as disassembly of these assets for component parts. The TechOps segment provides internal and third-party aviation services, including internally developed engineered solutions, heavy aircraft maintenance and modification, and component MRO, as well as end-of-life disassembly services. This segment provides aircraft modifications, cargo and tanker conversions of aircraft, and aircraft storage; and MRO services for landing gear, thrust reversers, hydraulic systems, and other aircraft components. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida.

About Astronics

Astronics Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures products for the aerospace, defense, and electronics industries in the United States, rest of North America, Asia, Europe, South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace and Test Systems. The Aerospace segment offers lighting and safety systems, electrical power generation systems, distribution and seat motions systems, aircraft structures, avionics products, system certification, and other products. This segment serves airframe manufacturers (OEM) that build aircraft for the commercial, military, and general aviation markets; suppliers to OEMs; and aircraft operators, such as airlines; suppliers to the aircraft operators; and branches of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Test Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, and maintains automated test systems that support the aerospace and defense, and mass transit industries, as well as training and simulation devices for commercial and military applications. It serves OEMs and prime government contractors for electronics and military products. Astronics Corporation was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in East Aurora, New York.