Head-To-Head Review: CVD Equipment (NASDAQ:CVV) vs. Ascent Industries (NASDAQ:ACNT)

Ascent Industries (NASDAQ:ACNT) and CVD Equipment (NASDAQ:CVV) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Ascent Industries and CVD Equipment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ascent Industries	0.85%	-1.63%	-1.09%
CVD Equipment	-0.66%	-0.72%	-0.60%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.1% of Ascent Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 31.6% of CVD Equipment shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.3% of Ascent Industries shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 28.7% of CVD Equipment shares are owned by 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.

Risk & Volatility

Ascent Industries has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CVD Equipment has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Ascent Industries and CVD Equipment, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ascent Industries	0	1	0	0	2.00
CVD Equipment	1	0	0	0	1.00

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ascent Industries and CVD Equipment”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ascent Industries	$177.87 million	0.85	-$13.60 million	$0.12	135.08
CVD Equipment	$26.88 million	1.24	-$1.90 million	($0.02)	-240.50

CVD Equipment has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ascent Industries. CVD Equipment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ascent Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

CVD Equipment beats Ascent Industries on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ascent Industries

Ascent Industries Co. an industrials company, produces and distributes stainless steel pipe and tube and specialty chemicals in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Tubular Products and Specialty Chemicals. It manufactures welded pipes and tubes, primarily from stainless steel, duplex, and nickel alloys; and ornamental stainless steel tubes for automotive, commercial transportation, marine, food services, construction, furniture, healthcare, and other industries. The company also produces defoamers, surfactants, and lubricating agents for end users, including companies that supply agrochemical paper, metal working, coatings, water treatment, paint, mining, oil and gas, and janitorial and other applications. In addition, it provides contract manufacturing services, as well as operates as a multi-purpose plant to process various difficult to handle materials, including flammable solvents, viscous liquids, and granular solids. The company was formerly known as Synalloy Corporation and changed its name to Ascent Industries Co. in August 2022. Ascent Industries Co. was founded in 1945 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

About CVD Equipment

CVD Equipment Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells equipment to develop and manufacture materials and coatings in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: CVD Equipment, Stainless Design Concepts, and CVD Materials. The CVD Equipment segment offers chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor transport, and thermal process equipment under the FirstNano brand for various markets, such as high power electronics, aerospace advanced materials for gas turbine jet engines, and nanomaterials used in batteries, as well as semiconductors, LEDs, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, solar cells, and other industrial and research applications. The Stainless Design Concepts segment provides ultra-high purity gas and chemical delivery control systems, including gas cylinder storage cabinets, custom gas and chemical delivery systems, gas and liquid valve manifold boxes, and gas isolation boxes for semiconductor fabrication processes, aerospace, solar cells, LEDs, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, and industrial applications. The CVD Materials segment offers products related to advanced materials and coatings, such as MesoPlasma printing services and products comprising heaters, antennas, and sensors to aerospace, satellite, power generation, defense, and other markets. The company also provides annealing, diffusion, and low pressure chemical vapor deposition furnaces; and standard and custom fabricated quartz-ware used in its equipment and other customer tools. The company was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Central Islip, New York.