Tennant (NYSE:TNC) & Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) Head-To-Head Survey

Tennant (NYSE:TNC) and Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Tennant and Blue Bird, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tennant	0	3	2	0	2.40
Blue Bird	1	0	6	1	2.88

Tennant presently has a consensus target price of $87.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.47%. Blue Bird has a consensus target price of $85.33, suggesting a potential upside of 53.95%. Given Blue Bird’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Blue Bird is more favorable than Tennant.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.3% of Tennant shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Blue Bird shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Tennant shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Blue Bird shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Tennant has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blue Bird has a beta of 1.46, suggesting that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Tennant and Blue Bird”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tennant	$1.20 billion	1.06	$43.80 million	$1.34	55.74
Blue Bird	$1.61 billion	1.08	$127.72 million	$8.22	6.74

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

Profitability

This table compares Tennant and Blue Bird’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tennant	1.85%	13.30%	5.78%
Blue Bird	17.48%	39.97%	18.93%

Summary

Blue Bird beats Tennant on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tennant

Tennant Company designs, manufactures and markets equipment and solutions for commercial and industrial cleaning. Its products include floor scrubbers and sweepers, vacuum cleaners, carpet extractors and autonomous cleaning machines, along with cleaning technologies, replacement parts and related services. The company serves customers in sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, retail, education and transportation. Its offerings support both routine facility maintenance and specialized cleaning needs, and Tennant sells and services its products in markets around the world.

About Blue Bird

Blue Bird Corporation designs, manufactures and sells school buses, along with replacement parts and aftermarket services. Its product lineup includes Type C conventional buses and Type D transit-style buses, with options that use electric, propane, gasoline, diesel and compressed natural gas powertrains. Founded in 1927 by A.L. Luce in Fort Valley, Georgia, the company has a long history of building vehicles for student transportation. Blue Bird serves school districts, private bus operators and other customers, primarily in North America, and also sells buses in international markets.