TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS) vs. Highway (NASDAQ:HIHO) Head-To-Head Analysis

TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS) and Highway (NASDAQ:HIHO) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

TriMas pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Highway pays an annual dividend of $0.07 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. TriMas pays out 20.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Highway pays out -41.2% 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. Highway is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

TriMas has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Highway has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.4% of TriMas shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.2% of Highway shares are held by institutional investors. 14.2% of TriMas shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 32.1% of Highway shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for TriMas and Highway, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TriMas	0	0	1	0	3.00
Highway	0	0	0	0	0.00

TriMas currently has a consensus target price of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 47.17%. Given TriMas’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe TriMas is more favorable than Highway.

Profitability

This table compares TriMas and Highway’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TriMas	3.36%	10.54%	5.24%
Highway	-10.36%	1.53%	0.93%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares TriMas and Highway”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TriMas	$939.58 million	1.18	$24.25 million	$0.77	35.30
Highway	$6.32 million	1.20	-$960,000.00	($0.17)	-10.18

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

Summary

TriMas beats Highway on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TriMas

TriMas Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of products for consumer products, aerospace, and industrial markets worldwide. The company operates through Packaging, Aerospace, and Specialty Products segments. The Packaging segment offers dispensing products, such as foaming and sanitizer pumps, lotion and hand soap pumps, beverage dispensers, perfume sprayers, and nasal and trigger sprayers; polymeric and steel caps and closures comprising food lids, flip-top and beverage closures, child resistance caps, drum and pail closures, and flexible spouts; polymeric jar products; integrated dispensers; bag-in-box products; and consumable vascular delivery and diagnostic test components under the Rieke, Taplast, Affaba & Ferrari, Intertech, Omega, and Rapak brands. The Aerospace segment provides fasteners, collars, blind bolts, rivets, ducting, and connectors for air management systems, and other highly-machined parts and components to original equipment manufacturers, supply chain distributors, and tier one suppliers, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO)/aftermarket providers; and military and defense aerospace applications and platforms under the Monogram Aerospace Fasteners, Allfast Fastening Systems, Mac Fasteners, TFI Aerospace, RSA Engineered Products, and Martinic Engineering brands. The Specialty Products segment offers steel cylinders for use in the transportation, storage, and dispensing of compressed gases under the Norris Cylinder brand; natural gas powered wellhead engines, compressors, and replacement parts for oil and natural gas production, and other industrial and commercial markets under the Arrow brand; and spare parts for various industrial engines. It sells its products through a direct sales force, third-party agents, and distributors. TriMas Corporation was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

About Highway

Highway Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and supplies metal, plastic, electric, and electronic components, subassemblies, and finished products for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and contract manufacturers. It operates through two segments, Metal Stamping and Mechanical OEM; and Electric OEM. The company also trades in plastic injection products; and manufactures and assembles automation equipment. Its products are used in the manufacture of products, such as photocopiers, laser printers, print cartridges, electrical connectors, electrical circuits, vacuum cleaners, LED power supplies, stepping motors, pumps for dishwashers, and other washing machine components. In addition, the company assists customers in the design and development of the tooling used in the metal and plastic manufacturing process, as well as provides an array of other manufacturing and engineering services, including metal stamping, screen printing, plastic injection molding, pad printing, and electronic assembly of printed circuit boards. It operates in Hong Kong and China, Europe, North America, and other Asian countries. Highway Holdings Limited was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Sheung Shui, Hong Kong.