Head to Head Analysis: Halma (OTCMKTS:HLMAF) and Brady (NYSE:BRC)

Halma (OTCMKTS:HLMAF) and Brady (NYSE:BRC) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Halma and Brady, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Halma	1	3	2	2	2.63
Brady	0	0	1	1	3.50

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.3% of Brady shares are held by institutional investors. 15.6% of Brady 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Halma and Brady”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Halma	$2.87 billion	7.62	$378.18 million	N/A	N/A
Brady	$1.51 billion	2.88	$189.26 million	$4.27	21.65

Halma has higher revenue and earnings than Brady.

Profitability

This table compares Halma and Brady’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Halma	N/A	N/A	N/A
Brady	13.01%	18.62%	12.99%

Risk and Volatility

Halma has a beta of 1.43, meaning that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brady has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About Halma

Halma plc, together its subsidiaries, provides technology solutions in the safety, health, and environmental markets in the United States, Mainland Europe, the United Kingdom, the Asia Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Safety, Environmental & Analysis, and Medical. The Safety segment provides fire safety, fire detection and fire suppression; safe movement in public, commercial, and industrial spaces; elevator safety; communications in emergencies; control of access in potentially hazardous industrial and commercial environments; electrical safety; and the safe management of pipelines and storage assets solutions. This segment serves shops and restaurants, healthcare facilities, and offices and stadiums; industrial and logistics assets; public spaces and critical infrastructure; and aerospace, and rail and automotive markets. The Environmental & Analysis segment offers optical, optoelectronic, and spectral imaging systems; environmental monitoring, water and waste water analysis and treatment, gas analysis and detection, and optical analysis systems. It serves the optical analysis, water analysis and treatment, gas detection, and environmental monitoring markets. The Medical segment provides critical fluidic components used by medical diagnostics and original equipment manufacturers; components, devices and systems that provide information and analytics to understand patient health and enable providers to make decisions across the continuum of care; technologies and solutions to enable in-vitro diagnostic systems and life-science discoveries and development; and technologies that enable treatment across clinical specialties. This segment serves the life sciences, health assessment and analytics, and therapeutic solutions market. The company was incorporated in 1894 and is headquartered in Amersham, the United Kingdom.

About Brady

Brady Corporation manufactures and supplies identification solutions (IDS) and workplace safety (WPS) products to identify and protect premises, products, and people in the United States and internationally. The company offers materials, printing systems, RFID, and bar code scanners for product identification, brand protection labeling, work in process labeling, finished product identification, and industrial track and trace applications; safety signs, floor-marking tapes, pipe markers, labeling systems, spill control products, lockout/tagout device, and software and services for safety compliance auditing, procedure writing, and training; and hand-held printers, wire markers, sleeves, and tags for wire identification. It also provides name tags, badges, lanyards, rigid card printing systems, and access control software for people identification; and wristbands, labels, printing systems, and other products for tracking and improving the safety of patients. In addition, the company offers workplace safety, identification, and compliance products, such as safety and compliance signs, tags, labels, and markings; informational signage and markings; asset tracking labels; facility safety and personal protection equipment; first-aid products; and other compliance products for process, government, education, construction, and utilities industries. Further, it provides stock and custom identification products; and sells related resale products. The company serves industrial and electronic manufacturing, healthcare, chemical, oil, gas, automotive, aerospace, governments, mass transit, electrical contractors, education, leisure and entertainment, telecommunications, and other industries through distributors, direct sales force, and digital channels. Brady Corporation was incorporated in 1914 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.