Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) versus Archer Aviation (NYSE:ACHR) Head-To-Head Survey

Archer Aviation (NYSE:ACHR) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) are both aerospace companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Archer Aviation and Northrop Grumman, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Archer Aviation	1	2	5	0	2.50
Northrop Grumman	0	9	11	1	2.62

Archer Aviation presently has a consensus target price of $12.00, suggesting a potential upside of 108.51%. Northrop Grumman has a consensus target price of $693.60, suggesting a potential downside of 1.79%. Given Archer Aviation’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Archer Aviation is more favorable than Northrop Grumman.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Archer Aviation and Northrop Grumman”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Archer Aviation	$300,000.00	12,494.87	-$618.20 million	($0.99)	-5.81
Northrop Grumman	$41.95 billion	2.39	$4.18 billion	$29.13	24.24

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

Risk & Volatility

Archer Aviation has a beta of 3.1, meaning that its share price is 210% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northrop Grumman has a beta of 0.03, meaning that its share price is 97% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Archer Aviation and Northrop Grumman’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Archer Aviation	N/A	-37.76%	-32.89%
Northrop Grumman	9.97%	25.57%	8.13%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

59.3% of Archer Aviation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.4% of Northrop Grumman shares are held by institutional investors. 7.7% of Archer Aviation shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Northrop Grumman shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Northrop Grumman beats Archer Aviation on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Archer Aviation

Archer Aviation Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in designs, develops, and operates electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use in urban air mobility. The company was formerly known as Atlas Crest Investment Corp. and changed its name to Archer Aviation Inc. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation operates as an aerospace and defense technology company in the United States, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and internationally. The company’s Aeronautics Systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, and sustains aircraft systems. This segment also offers unmanned autonomous aircraft systems, including high-altitude long-endurance strategic ISR systems and vertical take-off and landing tactical ISR systems; and strategic long-range strike aircraft, tactical fighter and air dominance aircraft, and airborne battle management and command and control systems. Its Defense Systems segment designs, develops, integrates, and produces tactical weapons and missile defense solutions, and provides sustainment, modernization, and training services for manned and unmanned aircraft and electronics systems. It also offers integrated, all-domain command, and control battle management systems, precision strike weapons; high speed air-breathing and hypersonic systems; high-performance gun systems, ammunition, precision munitions and advanced fuzes; aircraft and mission systems logistics support, sustainment, operations and modernization; and warfighter training services. The company’s Mission Systems segment offers command, control, communications and computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems; radar, electro-optical/infrared and acoustic sensors; electronic warfare systems; advanced communications and network systems; cyber solutions; intelligence processing systems; navigation; and maritime power, propulsion, and payload launch systems. Its Space Systems segment offers satellites, spacecraft systems, subsystems, sensors, and payloads; ground systems; missile defense systems and interceptors; launch vehicles and related propulsion systems; and strategic missiles. Northrop Grumman Corporation was founded in 1939 and is based in Falls Church, Virginia.