Financial Review: Sumitomo Heavy (OTCMKTS:SOHVY) and Ascent Industries (NASDAQ:ACNT)

Ascent Industries (NASDAQ:ACNT) and Sumitomo Heavy (OTCMKTS:SOHVY) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Ascent Industries and Sumitomo Heavy, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ascent Industries	0	1	0	0	2.00
Sumitomo Heavy	0	0	0	0	0.00

Profitability

This table compares Ascent Industries and Sumitomo Heavy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ascent Industries	0.85%	-1.63%	-1.09%
Sumitomo Heavy	0.36%	4.86%	2.47%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ascent Industries and Sumitomo Heavy”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ascent Industries	$177.87 million	0.85	-$13.60 million	$0.12	135.00
Sumitomo Heavy	$7.08 billion	0.50	$50.97 million	$0.07	105.71

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

Volatility & Risk

Ascent Industries has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sumitomo Heavy has a beta of 0.2, indicating that its stock price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.1% of Ascent Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.3% of Ascent Industries shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Ascent Industries beats Sumitomo Heavy on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ascent Industries

Ascent Industries Co. an industrials company, produces and distributes stainless steel pipe and tube and specialty chemicals in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Tubular Products and Specialty Chemicals. It manufactures welded pipes and tubes, primarily from stainless steel, duplex, and nickel alloys; and ornamental stainless steel tubes for automotive, commercial transportation, marine, food services, construction, furniture, healthcare, and other industries. The company also produces defoamers, surfactants, and lubricating agents for end users, including companies that supply agrochemical paper, metal working, coatings, water treatment, paint, mining, oil and gas, and janitorial and other applications. In addition, it provides contract manufacturing services, as well as operates as a multi-purpose plant to process various difficult to handle materials, including flammable solvents, viscous liquids, and granular solids. The company was formerly known as Synalloy Corporation and changed its name to Ascent Industries Co. in August 2022. Ascent Industries Co. was founded in 1945 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

About Sumitomo Heavy

Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. manufactures and sells general machinery, advanced precision machinery, construction machinery, ships, and environmental plant facilities in Japan and internationally. Its Mechatronics segment offers gearmotors, gearboxes, motion control drives, motors and inverters, drive solutions, precision positioning equipment, laser systems, control systems, motion components, and collaborative robot. The company's Industrial Machinery segment provides injection molding machines, cryocoolers, ion implanters, PET tracer production systems, vacuum coasting equipment, steel tube air forming, non-destructive inspections, clean room system, cast iron and steel rolls for hot rolling, and coolant systems. Its Logistics & Construction segment offers hydraulic excavators, crawler cranes, material handing systems, parking systems, transfer molding presses, cryopumps, proton therapy systems, forging presses, lifting magnets, spinning machines, dust collectors, surface grinding machines, extrusion coating line, road machinery, foundation machines, logistics systems, and forklifts. The company's Energy & Lifelines segment provides circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers, liquid air energy storage, electrostatic precipitators, evaporation and crystallization facilities, waste heat boilers, CFB scrubbers, flue gas denitrification systems, industrial wastewater treatment facilities, steam turbines, distillation technology and extractors, mixing vessels, and food and beverage manufacturing facilities. This segment also offers bubbling fluidized bed boilers, rotary kiln-type recycling facilities, ash handling systems, fluidized bed gasifiers, waste-to-energy plants baghouses, digital services, water and sewage treatment systems, process pumps, reactor vessels, coke oven machines, and oils tankers. The company provides IT solutions and security services. Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.