Analyzing Oshkosh (NYSE:OSK) & Eastern (NASDAQ:EML)

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) and Oshkosh (NYSE:OSK) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Eastern and Oshkosh”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eastern	$248.97 million	0.68	$7.13 million	$1.34	20.87
Oshkosh	$10.42 billion	0.83	$647.00 million	$8.74	15.95

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

Volatility and Risk

Eastern has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oshkosh has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.0% of Eastern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Oshkosh shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.4% of Eastern shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Oshkosh shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Eastern and Oshkosh, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eastern	0	2	0	0	2.00
Oshkosh	1	5	11	0	2.59

Oshkosh has a consensus target price of $165.79, suggesting a potential upside of 18.95%. Given Oshkosh’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Oshkosh is more favorable than Eastern.

Dividends

Eastern pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Oshkosh pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Eastern pays out 32.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Oshkosh pays out 26.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Oshkosh has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Oshkosh is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Eastern and Oshkosh’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eastern	3.44%	3.38%	1.89%
Oshkosh	4.63%	11.69%	5.24%

Summary

Oshkosh beats Eastern on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Eastern

The Eastern Company designs, manufactures, and sells engineered solutions to industrial markets in the United States and internationally. The company offers turnkey returnable packaging solutions, which are used in the assembly processes of vehicles, aircraft, and durable goods, as well as in production processes of plastic packaging products, packaged consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals; designs and manufactures blow mold tools and injection blow mold tooling products, and 2-step stretch blow molds and related components for the stretch blow molding industry; and supplies blow molds and change parts to the food, beverage, healthcare, and chemical industries. It also provides rotary latches, compression latches, draw latches, hinges, camlocks, key switches, padlocks, and handles; and development and program management services for custom electromechanical and mechanical systems for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and customer applications. In addition, the company designs and manufactures proprietary vision technology for OEMs and aftermarket applications, as well as offers aftermarket components to the heavy- and medium-duty truck, motorhome, and bus markets. The Eastern Company was founded in 1858 and is based in Shelton, Connecticut.

About Oshkosh

Oshkosh Corporation provides purpose-built vehicles and equipment worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Access, Defense, and Vocational segment. Its Access Equipment segment design and manufacture aerial work platform and telehandlers for use in construction, industrial, and maintenance applications; offers financing and leasing solutions including rental fleet loans, leases, and floor plan and retail financing; and towing and recovery equipment, which includes carriers, wreckers, and rotators, as well as provides equipment installation and sale of chassis and service parts. The Defense segment engages in the manufacture and sale of heavy, medium, and light tactical wheeled vehicles and related services for department of defense. Its Vocational segment offers custom and commercial firefighting equipment, fire apparatus, and emergency vehicles, including pumpers, aerial platform, ladder and tiller trucks, and tankers; light, medium, and heavy-duty rescue vehicles; and wildland rough terrain response, bomb squad, hazardous materials control vehicles, mobile command and control centers, and other emergency response vehicles. Additionally, this segment produces and sells custom and commercial firefighting vehicles, as well as command vehicles, ARFF vehicles; design and manufacture refuse collection vehicles for waste services industry; front discharge concrete mixers for the concrete ready-mix industry; and field service vehicles and truck-mounted cranes for construction, equipment dealer, building supply, utility, tire service, railroad, and mining industries. Further, the company provides its products through direct sales representatives, dealers, and distributors. Oshkosh Corporation was formerly known as Oshkosh Truck Corporation. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.