Critical Survey: RF Industries (NASDAQ:RFIL) and Ouster (NASDAQ:OUST)
by Tristan Rich · The Markets DailyOuster (NASDAQ:OUST – Get Free Report) and RF Industries (NASDAQ:RFIL – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Volatility & Risk
Ouster has a beta of 3.23, meaning that its share price is 223% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, RF Industries has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Ouster and RF Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Ouster | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2.62 |
| RF Industries | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2.50 |
Ouster presently has a consensus target price of $54.67, suggesting a potential upside of 88.64%. RF Industries has a consensus target price of $14.50, suggesting a potential upside of 88.80%. Given RF Industries’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe RF Industries is more favorable than Ouster.
Profitability
This table compares Ouster and RF Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Ouster | -26.02% | -17.49% | -12.97% |
| RF Industries | 2.83% | 15.32% | 7.80% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Ouster and RF Industries”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Ouster | $169.38 million | 12.34 | -$60.38 million | ($0.86) | -33.70 |
| RF Industries | $86.31 million | 0.97 | $80,000.00 | $0.22 | 34.91 |
RF Industries has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ouster. Ouster is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than RF Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
31.5% of Ouster shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.5% of RF Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 5.7% of Ouster shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.4% of RF Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
RF Industries beats Ouster on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Ouster
Ouster, Inc. provides lidar sensors for the automotive, industrial, robotics, and smart infrastructure industries in Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its products include high-resolution scanning and solid-state digital lidar sensors, analog lidar sensors, and software solutions. The company offers Ouster Sensor, a scanning sensor; and Digital Flash, a solid-state flash sensor. It also provides surround-view lidar sensors, which include Ouster Gemini, a perception platform for smart infrastructure deployments; and Blue City, a Gemini-powered solution for traffic operations, planning, and safety. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
About RF Industries
RF Industries, Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets interconnect products and systems in the United States, Canada, Italy, Mexico, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, RF Connector and Cable Assembly, and Custom Cabling Manufacturing and Assembly. The company designs, manufactures, and distributes various coaxial connectors and cable assemblies that are integrated with coaxial connectors; custom copper and fiber cable assemblies, complex hybrid fiber optic and power solution cables, adapters, and electromechanical wiring harnesses for communication, computer, LAN, automotive, and medical equipment; energy-efficient cooling systems for wireless base stations and remote equipment shelters; and custom-designed pole-ready 5G small cell integrated enclosures. It also designs and manufactures cable assemblies and wiring harnesses for blue chip industrial, oilfield, instrumentation, medical, and military customers; connectivity solutions to telecommunications and data communications distributors; thermal control systems; and radio frequency and microwave distribution system products, such as dividers, directional couplers, and filters. The company sells its products through warehousing distributors and in-house marketing and sales team. It serves telecommunications carriers and equipment manufacturers, wireless and network infrastructure carriers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Celltronics, Inc. and changed its name RF Industries, Ltd. in November 1990. RF Industries, Ltd. was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.