Critical Comparison: SMC (SMCAY) & Its Competitors

SMC (OTCMKTS:SMCAY) is one of 377 publicly-traded companies in the “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare SMC to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, dividends and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SMC and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
SMC	$5.60 billion	$1.10 billion	18.20
SMC Competitors	$4.00 billion	$172.92 million	4.57

SMC has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. SMC is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk and Volatility

SMC has a beta of 1.19, suggesting that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SMC’s competitors have a beta of -0.30, suggesting that their average share price is 130% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares SMC and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SMC	21.94%	9.40%	8.53%
SMC Competitors	-160.23%	-30.21%	-6.88%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for SMC and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SMC	0	2	1	0	2.33
SMC Competitors	2049	7621	10455	667	2.47

As a group, “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies have a potential upside of 36.59%. Given SMC’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SMC has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Dividends

SMC pays an annual dividend of $0.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. SMC pays out 17.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.0% and pay out 69.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.0% of SMC shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.5% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are owned by institutional investors. 16.1% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

SMC beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About SMC

SMC Corporation manufactures, processes, and sells automatic control equipment, sintered filters, and various types of filtration equipment worldwide. The company offers air management system, directional control valves, air cylinders, rotatory actuators/air grippers, electric actuators/cylinders, fitting and tubing, and modular F.R.L./pressure control equipment, as well as vacuum, air preparation, and lubrication equipment. It also provides flow control equipment, speed controllers, silencers/exhaust/blow guns/pressure gauges, switches/sensors/controllers, static neutralization equipment, and industrial device communication equipment/wireless system. In addition, the company offers process valves, chemical liquid valves/fittings and needle valves/tubing, process pumps, temperature control equipment, and process gas equipment, as well as high vacuum equipment, industrial filters/sintered metal elements, and pneumatic instrumentation and hydraulic equipment. The company was formerly known as Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Co., Ltd. and changed its name to SMC Corporation in April 1986. SMC Corporation was incorporated in 1959 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.