Critical Analysis: Allient (NASDAQ:ALNT) & Asia Pacific Wire & Cable (NASDAQ:APWC)

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable (NASDAQ:APWC) and Allient (NASDAQ:ALNT) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Asia Pacific Wire & Cable and Allient”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Asia Pacific Wire & Cable	$489.68 million	0.06	$3.67 million	$0.28	4.97
Allient	$574.78 million	2.80	$22.03 million	$1.70	55.66

Allient has higher revenue and earnings than Asia Pacific Wire & Cable. Asia Pacific Wire & Cable is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Allient, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.0% of Asia Pacific Wire & Cable shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.6% of Allient shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Asia Pacific Wire & Cable shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of Allient shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Asia Pacific Wire & Cable and Allient’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Asia Pacific Wire & Cable	1.28%	2.16%	1.35%
Allient	4.98%	13.55%	7.05%

Volatility & Risk

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Allient has a beta of 1.62, indicating that its stock price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Asia Pacific Wire & Cable and Allient, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Asia Pacific Wire & Cable	1	0	0	0	1.00
Allient	0	0	5	1	3.17

Allient has a consensus target price of $84.00, suggesting a potential downside of 11.22%. Given Allient’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Allient is more favorable than Asia Pacific Wire & Cable.

Summary

Allient beats Asia Pacific Wire & Cable on 15 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Asia Pacific Wire & Cable

Asia Pacific Wire & Cable Corp. Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the business of owning operating companies in the power cable, telecommunication cable, enameled wire, and electronic cable industry. It operates through the following segments: North Asia, Thailand, and Rest of the World. The company was founded on September 19, 1996 and is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan.

About Allient

Allient Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells precision and specialty controlled motion components and systems for various industries in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. It offers brush and brushless DC motors, brushless servo and torque motors, coreless DC motors, integrated brushless motor-drives, gearmotors, gearing, modular digital servo drives, motion controllers, optical encoders, active and passive filters, input/output modules, industrial communications gateways, light-weighting technologies, and other controlled motion-related products, as well as nano precision positioning systems, servo control systems, and digital servo amplifiers and drives. The company sells its products to end customers and original equipment manufacturers in vehicle, medical, aerospace and defense, and industrial markets through direct sales force, authorized manufacturers’ representatives, and distributors. The company was formerly known as Allied Motion Technologies Inc. and changed its name to Allient Inc. in August 2023. Allient Inc. was incorporated in 1962 and is headquartered in Amherst, New York.