Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA – Get Free Report) and Astrotech (NASDAQ:ASTC – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Zebra Technologies and Astrotech”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Zebra Technologies | $5.85 billion | 3.08 | $419.00 million | $10.93 | 34.54 |
| Astrotech | $910,000.00 | 11.49 | -$14.43 million | ($8.49) | -0.61 |
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.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
91.0% of Zebra Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.4% of Astrotech shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Zebra Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.8% of Astrotech shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Zebra Technologies and Astrotech, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Zebra Technologies | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 2.69 |
| Astrotech | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
Zebra Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $385.83, suggesting a potential upside of 2.20%. Given Zebra Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Zebra Technologies is more favorable than Astrotech.
Risk & Volatility
Zebra Technologies has a beta of 1.58, meaning that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Astrotech has a beta of 4.91, meaning that its stock price is 391% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Zebra Technologies and Astrotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Zebra Technologies | 9.22% | 22.29% | 9.46% |
| Astrotech | -1,578.34% | -91.69% | -72.48% |
Summary
Zebra Technologies beats Astrotech on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
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.
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.
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