Aebi Schmidt (NASDAQ:AEBI) & Freightcar America (NASDAQ:RAIL) Head to Head Survey

Aebi Schmidt (NASDAQ:AEBI) and Freightcar America (NASDAQ:RAIL) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

32.0% of Freightcar America shares are owned by institutional investors. 39.1% of Aebi Schmidt shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 29.2% of Freightcar America 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.

Volatility & Risk

Aebi Schmidt has a beta of 2.43, indicating that its share price is 143% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freightcar America has a beta of 1.58, indicating that its share price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Aebi Schmidt pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Freightcar America pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. Aebi Schmidt pays out 31.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Freightcar America pays out -116.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Freightcar America is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Aebi Schmidt and Freightcar America, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aebi Schmidt	0	1	2	0	2.67
Freightcar America	2	0	0	0	1.00

Aebi Schmidt currently has a consensus price target of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 52.19%. Given Aebi Schmidt’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Aebi Schmidt is more favorable than Freightcar America.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Aebi Schmidt and Freightcar America”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aebi Schmidt	$1.95 billion	0.44	$9.74 million	$0.32	34.91
Freightcar America	$379.50 million	0.44	$38.10 million	($0.31)	-16.52

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

Profitability

This table compares Aebi Schmidt and Freightcar America’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aebi Schmidt	1.09%	2.59%	1.04%
Freightcar America	-1.32%	-15.23%	-2.64%

Summary

Aebi Schmidt beats Freightcar America on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aebi Schmidt

Aebi Schmidt develops and manufactures specialized vehicles and equipment for road maintenance, snow and ice control, airport operations, and other municipal and infrastructure applications. Its products include snowplows and spreaders, street sweepers, airport snow-clearing and deicing equipment, and compact vehicles and machinery for challenging terrain. The company serves public agencies, airports, contractors, and other commercial customers, with operations and markets across North America and Europe.

About Freightcar America

FreightCar America, Inc. designs and manufactures freight railcars for the North American rail transportation industry. Its product portfolio has included aluminum and steel railcars, such as open-top hopper cars, gondolas, flat cars and other specialized freight equipment used to transport coal, aggregates, metals, agricultural products and other bulk commodities. The company serves major railroads, railcar leasing companies and industrial shippers. Its railcars are designed for applications that require durable, high-capacity equipment, with product offerings tailored to commodity transportation and intermodal or specialized freight needs.