Head to Head Survey: Mayville Engineering (NYSE:MEC) & Mueller Industries (NYSE:MLI)

Mayville Engineering (NYSE:MEC) and Mueller Industries (NYSE:MLI) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Mayville Engineering and Mueller Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mayville Engineering	1	1	4	0	2.50
Mueller Industries	0	0	2	0	3.00

Mayville Engineering currently has a consensus target price of $35.75, suggesting a potential upside of 65.82%. Mueller Industries has a consensus target price of $75.00, suggesting a potential upside of 18.67%. Given Mayville Engineering’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Mayville Engineering is more favorable than Mueller Industries.

Risk and Volatility

Mayville Engineering has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mueller Industries has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.4% of Mayville Engineering shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.5% of Mueller Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 5.6% of Mayville Engineering shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Mueller Industries shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Mayville Engineering and Mueller Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mayville Engineering	-2.95%	-6.63%	-2.99%
Mueller Industries	18.25%	25.68%	21.80%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Mayville Engineering and Mueller Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mayville Engineering	$546.49 million	1.01	-$8.11 million	($0.84)	-25.67
Mueller Industries	$4.66 billion	3.00	$765.19 million	$3.84	16.46

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

Summary

Mueller Industries beats Mayville Engineering on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mayville Engineering

Mayville Engineering Company, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production, design, prototyping and tooling, fabrication, aluminum extrusion, coating, and assembling of aftermarket components in the United States. It also supplies engineered components to original equipment manufacturers. The company serves heavy and medium duty commercial vehicles, construction and access equipment, powersports, agriculture, military, and other end markets. Mayville Engineering Company, Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

About Mueller Industries

Mueller Industries, Inc. manufactures and sells copper, brass, aluminum, and plastic products in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, the Middle East, China, and Mexico. It operates through three segments: Piping Systems, Industrial Metals, and Climate. The Piping Systems segment offers copper tubes, fittings, line sets, and pipe nipples. It also resells steel pipes, brass and plastic plumbing valves, malleable iron fittings and faucets, and plumbing specialties; and supplies water tubes. This segment sells its products to wholesalers in the plumbing and refrigeration markets, distributors to the manufactured housing and recreational vehicle industries, building material retailers, and air-conditioning original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The Industrial Metals segment manufactures brass, bronze, and copper alloy rods; plumbing brass, valves, fittings, and gas assemblies; cold-form aluminum and copper products; machining of aluminum, steel, brass, and cast iron impacts and castings; brass and aluminum forgings; brass, aluminum, and stainless-steel valves; fluid control solutions; and gas train assembles to OEMs in the industrial, construction, HVAC, plumbing, and refrigeration markets. The Climate segment offers valves, protection devices, and brass fittings for various OEMs in the commercial HVAC and refrigeration markets; high-pressure components and accessories for the air-conditioning and refrigeration markets; coaxial heat exchangers and twisted tubes for the HVAC, geothermal, refrigeration, swimming pool heat pump, marine, ice machine, commercial boiler, and heat reclamation markets; and insulated HVAC flexible duct systems. Mueller Industries, Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee.