Analyzing zSpace (NASDAQ:ZSPC) & NPK International (NYSE:NPKI)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for NPK International and zSpace, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NPK International	0	1	3	0	2.75
zSpace	1	1	4	0	2.50

NPK International presently has a consensus target price of $14.17, indicating a potential upside of 1.41%. zSpace has a consensus target price of $9.50, indicating a potential upside of 1,613.87%. Given zSpace’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe zSpace is more favorable than NPK International.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

80.8% of NPK International shares are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of NPK International shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 55.7% of zSpace shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares NPK International and zSpace’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%
zSpace	-68.88%	N/A	-177.47%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares NPK International and zSpace”s gross 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	5.43	-$150.26 million	$0.38	36.76
zSpace	$38.10 million	0.42	-$20.82 million	($0.79)	-0.70

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

Summary

NPK International beats zSpace on 9 of the 13 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 zSpace

zSpace Technologies, Inc. is a provider of commercial augmented reality and virtual reality technology principally in the education market. The Company offers differentiated hardware along with learning software modules for K-12 science, technology, engineering, game design and mathematics applications, as well as workforce-oriented career and technical education applications. zSpace Technologies Inc. is based in SAN JOSE, Calif.