Analyzing Powerfleet (NASDAQ:AIOT) and UTStarcom (NASDAQ:UTSI)

Powerfleet (NASDAQ:AIOT) and UTStarcom (NASDAQ:UTSI) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Powerfleet and UTStarcom, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Powerfleet	0	0	1	0	3.00
UTStarcom	0	0	0	0	N/A

Powerfleet presently has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 100.80%. Given Powerfleet’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Powerfleet is more favorable than UTStarcom.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

73.4% of Powerfleet shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.8% of UTStarcom shares are held by institutional investors. 3.8% of Powerfleet shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of UTStarcom shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Powerfleet has a beta of 1.68, meaning that its share price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UTStarcom has a beta of 0.43, meaning that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Powerfleet and UTStarcom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Powerfleet	-3.86%	-6.61%	-2.36%
UTStarcom	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Powerfleet	$133.74 million	4.00	-$5.68 million	($0.31)	-16.06
UTStarcom	$15.75 million	1.73	-$3.85 million	N/A	N/A

UTStarcom has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Powerfleet.

Summary

Powerfleet beats UTStarcom on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Powerfleet

PowerFleet, Inc. provides wireless Internet-of-Things asset management solutions in the United States, Israel, and internationally. The company offers real-time intelligence for organizations to capture IoT data from various types of assets with devices and sensors to increase efficiencies, and improve safety and security, as well as increase their profitability in easy-to-understand reports, dashboards, and real-time alerts; and application programming interfaces for additional integrations and development to boost other enterprise management systems and third-party applications. It also provides hosting, maintenance, and support and consulting services; and Software as a Service, including system monitoring, help desk technical support, escalation procedure development, routine diagnostic data analysis, and software updates services. The company offers its products under the PowerFleet, Pointer, and Cellocator brands. It sells its products to commercial and government sectors in manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, wholesale and retail, food and grocery distribution, pharmaceutical and medical distribution, construction, mining, utilities, heavy industry, aerospace and defense, homeland security, and vehicle rental, logistics, shipping, and freight transportation markets, as well as through indirect sales channels, such as original equipment manufacturers, vehicle importers, distributors, and industrial equipment dealers. The company was formerly known as I.D. Systems, Inc. PowerFleet, Inc. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

About UTStarcom

UTStarcom Holdings Corp. operates as a telecom infrastructure provider to develop technology for bandwidth from cloud-based services, mobile, streaming, and other applications in China, India, Japan, and internationally. Its products include converged packet transport, disaggregated router platform, packet transport network, packet aggregation network, multi-services access network, fiber to the X, carrier Wi-Fi solutions, and software defined network controller products. The company also offers packet optical and network synchronization products. It serves telecommunications operators and equipment distributors. The company was founded in 1991 and is based in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.