Jabil (NYSE:JBL – Get Free Report) and Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA – Get Free Report) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings and risk.
Profitability
This table compares Jabil and Zebra Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Jabil | 2.90% | 89.50% | 5.54% |
| Zebra Technologies | 9.22% | 22.29% | 9.46% |
Risk and Volatility
Jabil has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zebra Technologies has a beta of 1.58, suggesting that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings and Valuation
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Jabil | $35.95 billion | 0.89 | $657.00 million | $9.78 | 31.14 |
| Zebra Technologies | $5.40 billion | 3.32 | $419.00 million | $10.93 | 34.39 |
Jabil has higher revenue and earnings than Zebra Technologies. Jabil is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Zebra Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
93.4% of Jabil shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Zebra Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Jabil shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Zebra Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Jabil and Zebra Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Jabil | 0 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Zebra Technologies | 0 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 2.85 |
Jabil currently has a consensus target price of $434.22, suggesting a potential upside of 42.58%. Zebra Technologies has a consensus target price of $383.08, suggesting a potential upside of 1.92%. Given Jabil’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Jabil is more favorable than Zebra Technologies.
Summary
Jabil beats Zebra Technologies on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Jabil
Jabil Inc. provides manufacturing services and solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Electronics Manufacturing Services and Diversified Manufacturing Services. The company offers electronics design, production, and product management services; electronic circuit design services, such as application-specific integrated circuit design, firmware development, and rapid prototyping services; and designs plastic and metal enclosures that include the electro-mechanics, such as the printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA). It also provides three-dimensional mechanical design comprising the analysis of electronic, electro-mechanical, and optical assemblies, as well as various industrial design, mechanism development, and tooling management services. In addition, the company provides computer-assisted design services consisting of PCBA design, as well as PCBA design validation and verification services; and other consulting services, such as the generation of a bill of materials, approved vendor list, and assembly equipment configuration for various PCBA designs. Further, it offers product and process validation services, such as product system, product safety, regulatory compliance, and reliability tests, as well as manufacturing test solution development services. Additionally, the company provides systems assembly, test, direct-order fulfillment, and configure-to-order services. It serves 5G, wireless and cloud, digital print and retail, industrial and semi-cap, networking and storage, automotive and transportation, connected devices, healthcare and packaging, and mobility industries. The company was formerly known as Jabil Circuit, Inc. and changed its name to Jabil Inc. in June 2017. Jabil Inc. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
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.
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