Financial Comparison: Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA) vs. Astrotech (NASDAQ:ASTC)

Astrotech (NASDAQ:ASTC) and Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Astrotech has a beta of 4.91, meaning that its stock price is 391% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zebra Technologies has a beta of 1.58, meaning that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Astrotech and Zebra Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Astrotech	$910,000.00	15.04	-$14.43 million	($8.49)	-0.80
Zebra Technologies	$5.40 billion	3.42	$419.00 million	$10.93	35.42

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

Profitability

This table compares Astrotech and Zebra Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Astrotech	-1,578.34%	-91.69%	-72.48%
Zebra Technologies	9.22%	22.29%	9.46%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Astrotech and Zebra Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Astrotech	1	0	0	0	1.00
Zebra Technologies	0	4	9	0	2.69

Zebra Technologies has a consensus target price of $385.00, suggesting a potential downside of 0.56%. Given Zebra Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Zebra Technologies is more favorable than Astrotech.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

24.4% of Astrotech shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Zebra Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.8% of Astrotech shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Zebra Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Zebra Technologies beats Astrotech on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Astrotech

Astrotech Corporation operates as a mass spectrometry company worldwide. It owns and licenses the intellectual property related to the Astrotech Mass Spectrometer Technology, a platform mass spectrometry technology. The company also develops TRACER 1000, a mass spectrometer-based explosive trace detector to replace the explosives trace detectors used at airports, cargo and other secured facilities, and borders. In addition, it develops AgLAB-1000, a mass spectrometer for use in the hemp and cannabis market. Further, the company develops BreathTest-1000, a breath analysis tool to screen for volatile organic compound metabolites found in a person's breath. The company was formerly known as SPACEHAB, Inc. and changed its name to Astrotech Corporation in 2009. The company was incorporated in 1984 and is based in Austin, Texas.

About Zebra Technologies

Zebra Technologies Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides enterprise asset intelligence solutions in the automatic identification and data capture solutions industry worldwide. It operates in two segments, Asset Intelligence & Tracking, and Enterprise Visibility & Mobility. The company designs, manufactures, and sells printers that produce labels, wristbands, tickets, receipts, and plastic cards; dye-sublimination thermal card printers that produce images, which are used for personal identification, access control, and financial transactions; radio frequency identification device (RFID) printers that encode data into passive RFID transponders; accessories and options for printers, including carrying cases, vehicle mounts, and battery chargers; stock and customized thermal labels, receipts, ribbons, plastic cards, and RFID tags for printers; and temperature-monitoring labels primarily used in vaccine distribution. It also provides various maintenance, technical support, repair, and managed and professional services; fixed readers, RFID enabled mobile computers, and RFID sleds; tags, sensors, exciters, middleware software, and application software; and physical inventory management solutions, and rugged and enterprise-grade mobile computing products and accessories, as well as real-time location systems and services. In addition, the company offers barcode scanners and imagers, RFID readers, industrial machine vision cameras, and fixed industrial scanners; workforce management, workflow execution and task management, and prescriptive analytics, as well as communications and collaboration solutions; and cloud-based software subscriptions, retail, and robotics automation solutions. The company serves retail and e-commerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare, public sector, and other industries through direct sales force, and network of channel partners. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois.