Element Fleet Management (OTCMKTS:ELEEF) versus HNI (NYSE:HNI) Financial Survey

HNI (NYSE:HNI) and Element Fleet Management (OTCMKTS:ELEEF) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares HNI and Element Fleet Management’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HNI	0.10%	13.66%	5.23%
Element Fleet Management	23.33%	24.75%	3.91%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares HNI and Element Fleet Management”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HNI	$4.39 billion	0.77	$54.20 million	$0.09	517.89
Element Fleet Management	$1.19 billion	4.95	$279.13 million	$0.74	20.27

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

Dividends

HNI pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Element Fleet Management pays an annual dividend of $0.43 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. HNI pays out 1,555.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Element Fleet Management pays out 58.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. HNI has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. HNI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.3% of HNI shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of HNI shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for HNI and Element Fleet Management, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HNI	0	1	1	0	2.50
Element Fleet Management	0	0	2	1	3.33

HNI presently has a consensus target price of $65.00, suggesting a potential upside of 39.46%. Given HNI’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe HNI is more favorable than Element Fleet Management.

Summary

Element Fleet Management beats HNI on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HNI

HNI Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, sale, and marketing of workplace furnishings and residential building products primarily in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Workplace Furnishings and Residential Building Products. The Workplace Furnishings segment offers a range of commercial and home office furniture, including panel-based and freestanding furniture systems, seating, storage, benching, tables, architectural products, and ancillary and hospitality products, as well as social collaborative items under the HON, Allsteel, Beyond, Gunlocke, HBF, HBF Textiles, HNI India, Kimball, National, Etc., Interwoven, David Edward, Kimball Hospitality, and D'style brands. This segment sells its products through independent office products dealers, wholesalers, office product distributors, e-commerce focused resellers, and wholesalers, as well as directly to end-user customers and governments. The Residential Building Products segment provides various gas, wood, electric, and pellet-fueled prefabricated fireplaces; and inserts, hearth stoves, facings, outdoor fire pits and fire tables, and accessories. This segment sells its products primarily for home use under the Heatilator, Heat & Glo, Majestic, Monessen, Quadra-Fire, Harman, Vermont Castings, PelPro, Stellar, SimpliFire, The Outdoor GreatRoom Company, and Forge & Flame brand names through independent dealers and distributors, and corporation-owned distribution and retail outlets. The company was incorporated in 1944 and is headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa.

About Element Fleet Management

Element Fleet Management Corp. operates as a fleet management company primarily in Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. The company offers end-to-end fleet cars, trucks, and material handling support equipment acquisition; and end-to-end electric vehicle fleet including fleet planning, charging infrastructure solutions, acquisition, financing, maintenance, and remarketing. It provides commercial fleet financing comprising operating and capital lease, sale and leaseback funding, loans, rental fleet financing, client owned acquisition program, and fair market value lease for fleet cars, trucks, and equipment; and vehicle licensing and registration services, such as renewal, fleet title management, and insurance card management services. In addition, the company provides collision management services, such as 24/7 driver assistance, collision evaluation, repair management, and subrogation; fleet management outsourcing solutions; fuel, maintenance, and safety solutions; telematics and fleet connectivity solutions; and toll and violation management, as well as fleet remarketing, sale leaseback, and strategic fleet management consulting services. It serves construction, energy, oil and gas, food and beverages, healthcare, services, and transport sectors. Element Fleet Management Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Toronto, Canada.