Critical Review: ATS (ATSAF) vs. Its Peers

ATS (OTCMKTS:ATSAF) is one of 435 public companies in the “Machinery” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare ATS to similar businesses based on the strength of its risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

72.9% of ATS shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.2% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by institutional investors. 13.9% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by company 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 breakdown of current ratings and target prices for ATS and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ATS	0	0	3	0	3.00
ATS Competitors	4069	14453	17862	776	2.41

As a group, “Machinery” companies have a potential upside of 29.81%. Given ATS’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ATS has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares ATS and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ATS	N/A	N/A	N/A
ATS Competitors	-1,947.47%	-19.22%	0.87%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ATS and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
ATS	N/A	N/A	29.99
ATS Competitors	$4.56 billion	$347.86 million	-12.92

ATS’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than ATS. ATS is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

ATS beats its competitors on 6 of the 11 factors compared.

ATS Company Profile

ATS Corp. engages in planning, designing, building, commissioning, and servicing automated manufacturing and assembly systems. It offers custom automation, repeat automation, automation products, and value-added services, including pre-automation and after-sales services to life sciences, chemicals, consumer products, electronics, food, beverage, transportation, energy, and oil and gas market. The company was founded by Klaus D. Woerner in 1978 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Canada.