Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) & Autoscope Technologies (NASDAQ:AATC) Head to Head Contrast

Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) and Autoscope Technologies (NASDAQ:AATC) are both technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.5% of Plexus shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Plexus shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 21.6% of Autoscope Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Plexus has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Autoscope Technologies has a beta of 0.37, meaning that its stock price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Plexus and Autoscope Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Plexus	0	1	6	0	2.86
Autoscope Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00

Plexus presently has a consensus target price of $273.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.98%. Given Plexus’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Plexus is more favorable than Autoscope Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Plexus and Autoscope Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Plexus	4.03%	12.46%	5.57%
Autoscope Technologies	37.59%	27.06%	23.97%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Plexus and Autoscope Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Plexus	$4.03 billion	1.79	$172.88 million	$6.78	39.87
Autoscope Technologies	$8.93 million	3.60	$6.62 million	$0.26	22.42

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

Summary

Plexus beats Autoscope Technologies on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Plexus

Plexus Corp. provides electronic manufacturing services in the United States and internationally. It offers design, develop, supply chain, new product introduction, and manufacturing solutions, as well as sustaining services to companies in the healthcare/life sciences, industrial/commercial, aerospace/defense, and communications market sectors. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Neenah, Wisconsin.

About Autoscope Technologies

Autoscope Technologies Corporation develops and markets video and radar processing products for use in intersection control, highway, bridge and tunnel traffic management, and traffic data collection applications in the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. It operates in two segments, Intersection and Highway. The company provides Autoscope video systems that process video input from a traffic scene in real time and extracts the traffic data, including vehicle presence, bicycle presence/differentiation, counts, speed, length, time occupancy, turning movements, and flow rate; and RTMS radar systems that use radar to measure vehicle presence, volume, occupancy, speed, and classification information for roadway monitoring applications. It also offers IntellitraffiQ software that provides traffic measurement and data collection across large and small areas. The company markets and sells its products to end users comprising federal, state, city, and county departments of transportation, port, highway, tunnel, and other transportation authorities, as well as system integrators or other suppliers of systems and services who are operating under subcontracts in connection with road construction contracts. Autoscope Technologies Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.