Horiba (OTCMKTS:HRIBF) and ScanSource (NASDAQ:SCSC) Critical Comparison

Horiba (OTCMKTS:HRIBF) and ScanSource (NASDAQ:SCSC) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Horiba and ScanSource, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horiba	0	0	0	0	0.00
ScanSource	0	3	1	0	2.25

ScanSource has a consensus target price of $42.50, indicating a potential upside of 4.40%. Given ScanSource’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ScanSource is more favorable than Horiba.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Horiba and ScanSource”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horiba	$2.10 billion	1.84	$221.71 million	$5.74	16.03
ScanSource	$3.00 billion	0.30	$71.55 million	$3.21	12.68

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.9% of ScanSource shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.2% of ScanSource shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Horiba has a beta of 0.23, indicating that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ScanSource has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Horiba and ScanSource’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horiba	11.19%	12.26%	7.99%
ScanSource	2.35%	9.38%	4.87%

About Horiba

HORIBA, Ltd. manufactures and sells instruments and systems worldwide. The company operates in five segments: Automotive, Environment/Process, Medical, Semiconductor, and Scientific. The Automotive segment offers engine emission measurement devices; in-use vehicle emission measurement devices; on-board emission measurement devices; in-vehicle exhaust gas measuring devices; driveline test systems; engine test systems; brake test systems; fuel cell test devices; battery test devices; and vehicle development engineering and test engineering services, as well as leases and manages research and development facilities. The Environment/Process segment provides flue gas analyzers, water quality measuring devices, air pollution monitoring analyzers, environmental radiation measuring instruments, and process measurement equipment. The Medical segment offers hematology and CRP, immunology, clinical chemistry, and blood glucose analyzers, blood cell counters, biochemical testing devices, blood glucose testing devices, as well as coagulation/hemostasis analyzers. The Semiconductor segment provides mass flow controllers, chemical concentration monitors, semiconductor contaminant inspection equipment, and residual gas analyzer. The Scientific segment offers Raman spectrometers, pH meters, water quality measuring devices, particle size distribution measuring devices, X -ray fluorescence analyzers, elemental analyzers, fluorescence spectroscopy/lifetime measurement devices, spectrometer/detectors, and gratings. It also engages in the fund management, software development, and automation software for engine. The company’s products are used in arts, entertainment, and recreation; education, research and development, and government institution; food and beverage; energy and environment; health care; industrials; information technology; water; materials; mobility and transport; and waste management applications. HORIBA, Ltd. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.

About ScanSource

ScanSource, Inc. engages in the distribution of technology products and solutions in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. It operates through two segments, Specialty Technology Solutions and Modern Communications & Cloud. The Specialty Technology Solutions segment provides a portfolio of solutions primarily for enterprise mobile computing, data capture, barcode printing, point of sale (POS), payments, networking, electronic physical security, cyber security, and other technologies. This segment offers data capture and POS solutions to automate the collection, processing, and communication of information for commercial and industrial applications, including retail sales, distribution, shipping, inventory control, materials handling, warehouse management, and health care applications. It also provides electronic physical security products, such as identification, access control, video surveillance, and intrusion-related devices; networking products comprising wireless and networking infrastructure products; other software-as-a-service (SaaS) products; and engages in hardware rental activities. The Modern Communications & Cloud segment offers a portfolio of solutions primarily for communications technologies and services comprising voice, video conferencing, wireless, data networking, cybersecurity, cable, unified communications and collaboration, cloud, and technology services, as well as IP networks and other solutions for various vertical markets, such as education, healthcare, and government. The company serves manufacturing, warehouse and distribution, retail and e-commerce, hospitality, transportation and logistics, government, education and healthcare, and other industries. ScanSource, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.