Head to Head Contrast: Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) versus Carpenter Technology (NYSE:CRS)

Carpenter Technology (NYSE:CRS) and Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Carpenter Technology and Mercury Systems”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carpenter Technology	$3.12 billion	7.11	$529.80 million	$10.52	42.59
Mercury Systems	$983.62 million	4.91	-$29.67 million	($0.50)	-160.76

Carpenter Technology has higher revenue and earnings than Mercury Systems. Mercury Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Carpenter Technology, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.0% of Carpenter Technology shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.0% of Mercury Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of Carpenter Technology shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Mercury Systems 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Carpenter Technology and Mercury Systems, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carpenter Technology	0	1	8	1	3.00
Mercury Systems	2	4	5	1	2.42

Carpenter Technology presently has a consensus price target of $577.25, indicating a potential upside of 28.84%. Mercury Systems has a consensus price target of $110.10, indicating a potential upside of 36.97%. Given Mercury Systems’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Mercury Systems is more favorable than Carpenter Technology.

Risk and Volatility

Carpenter Technology has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mercury Systems has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Carpenter Technology and Mercury Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carpenter Technology	16.96%	26.46%	15.02%
Mercury Systems	-3.02%	1.29%	0.78%

Summary

Carpenter Technology beats Mercury Systems on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Carpenter Technology

Carpenter Technology Corporation engages in the manufacture, fabrication, and distribution of specialty metals in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, Mexico, Canada, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Specialty Alloys Operations and Performance Engineered Products. The company offers specialty alloys, including titanium alloys, powder metals, stainless steels, alloy steels, and tool steels, as well as additives, and metal powders and parts. It serves to aerospace, defense, medical, transportation, energy, industrial, and consumer markets. The company was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

About Mercury Systems

Mercury Systems, Inc., a technology company, manufactures and sells components, products, modules, and subsystems for aerospace and defense industries in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Its products and solutions are deployed in approximately 300 programs with 25 defense contractors and commercial aviation customers. The company offers components, including power amplifiers and limiters, switches, oscillators, filters, equalizers, digital and analog converters, chips, monolithic microwave integrated circuits, and memory and storage devices; modules and sub-assemblies, such as embedded processing boards, switched fabrics and boards, digital receivers, multi-chip modules, integrated radio frequency and microwave multi-function assemblies, tuners, and transceivers, as well as graphics and video boards; and integrated subsystems. It also designs and develops digital radio frequency memory units for various modern electronic warfare applications; radar environment simulation and test systems for defense and intelligence applications; and signals intelligence payloads and EO/IR technologies for small UAV platforms, as well as onboard UAV processor systems for real-time wide area motion imagery. The company was formerly known as Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Mercury Systems, Inc. in November 2012. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts.