Financial Analysis: NPK International (NYSE:NPKI) & NiCE (NASDAQ:NICE)

NPK International (NYSE:NPKI) and NiCE (NASDAQ:NICE) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares NPK International and NiCE’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NPK International	12.74%	9.93%	8.26%
NiCE	19.48%	17.71%	12.40%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for NPK International and NiCE, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NPK International	0	1	3	0	2.75
NiCE	1	5	8	0	2.50

NPK International currently has a consensus target price of $14.17, suggesting a potential upside of 16.72%. NiCE has a consensus target price of $159.77, suggesting a potential upside of 41.78%. Given NiCE’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe NiCE is more favorable than NPK International.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.8% of NPK International shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.3% of NiCE shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of NPK International shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of NiCE shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares NPK International and NiCE”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NPK International	$217.49 million	4.72	-$150.26 million	$0.38	31.94
NiCE	$2.74 billion	2.61	$442.59 million	$8.80	12.81

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

Volatility & Risk

NPK International has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NiCE has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

NiCE beats NPK International on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NPK International

NPK International Inc. provides products, rentals, and services primarily to the oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) industry. It operates through two segments, Fluids Systems and Industrial Solutions. The Fluids Systems segment provides drilling, completion, and stimulation fluids products and related technical services to customers primarily in the North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as other countries in the Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Industrial Solutions segment offers composite matting system rentals utilized for temporary worksite access; related site construction and services to customers in various markets, including power transmission, E&P, pipeline, renewable energy, petrochemical, construction, and other industries primarily in the United States and Europe; recyclable composite mats to customers worldwide; and access road construction, site planning and preparation, environmental protection, erosion control, and site restoration services. The company was formerly known as Newpark Resources, Inc. and changed its name to NPK International Inc. in December 2024. The company was incorporated in 1932 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

About NiCE

NiCE Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud platforms for AI-driven digital business solutions worldwide. It offers CXone, a cloud native open platform; Enlighten, an AI engine for the customer engagement market; and smart self-service enables organizations to address consumers’ needs; and journey orchestration solutions that empower organizations to connect and route customers to deal with the customer’s request, and connects them using real-time AI-based routing. The company provides smart self service solutions that empower organizations to build intelligent automated conversations based on data; and prepared agent solutions and tools enable contact center agents to guide and alert them in real time; provides solutions that help organizations to record structured and unstructured customer interaction and transaction data; and NiCE Evidencentral, an digital evidence management platform for public safety emergency communications, law enforcement, and criminal justice helps agencies. In addition, it offers X-Sight, is an open and flexible AI-cloud platform for financial crime and compliance; Xceed, a cloud platform for comprehensive AML and fraud prevention for small and mid-sized organizations; data intelligence solutions that enable organizations to turn raw data into comprehensive actionable intelligence to prevent and detect financial crimes; AI and analytics technologies to detect and prevent financial crimes in real-time; money laundering and fraud prevention solutions that help organizations adhere to capital markets compliance and anti-money laundering compliance regulations; intelligent investigations solutions; and self-service solutions that provide organizations with customization and self-development capabilities. The company was formerly known as NiCE-Systems Ltd. and changed its name to NiCE Ltd. in June 2016. NiCE Ltd. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Ra’anana, Israel.