Critical Contrast: Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) vs. Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN)

Ituran Location and Control (NASDAQ:ITRN – Get Free Report) and Ciena (NYSE:CIEN – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation, profitability and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Ituran Location and Control and Ciena’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Ituran Location and Control and Ciena, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

Ituran Location and Control presently has a consensus price target of $60.67, suggesting a potential upside of 17.43%. Ciena has a consensus price target of $483.47, suggesting a potential upside of 38.75%. Given Ciena’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ciena is more favorable than Ituran Location and Control.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ituran Location and Control and Ciena”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Ciena has higher revenue and earnings than Ituran Location and Control. Ituran Location and Control is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ciena, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Ituran Location and Control has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ciena has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.8% of Ituran Location and Control shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.0% of Ciena shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Ituran Location and Control shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Ciena shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Ciena beats Ituran Location and Control on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ituran Location and Control

(Get Free Report)

Ituran Location and Control Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides location based telematics services and machine-to-machine telematics products. It operates through two segments, Telematics Services and Telematics Products. The Telematics services segment offers stolen vehicle recovery and tracking services, which enables to locate, track, and recover stolen vehicles for its subscribers; fleet management services that enable corporate and individual customers to track and manage their vehicles in real time; and locator services that allow customers to protect valuable merchandise and equipment. This segment also delivers on-demand navigation guidance, information, and assistance, including the provision of traffic reports and directions, as well as information on the location of gas stations, car repair shops, post offices, hospitals, and other facilities; and Connected Car, a service platform that includes a back-office application, a telematics device installed in the vehicle, mobile apps for IOS and Android users, and interface using the car infotainment screen, as well as usage based insurance and auto financing services. This segment serves insurance companies and agents, car manufacturers, dealers and importers, cooperative sales channels, and private subscribers. The Telematics Products segment offers Base Site, a radio receiver that includes a processor and a data computation unit to collect and send data to and from transponders, and to control centers; Control Center, a center consisting of software used to collect data from various base sites, conduct location calculations, and transmit location data to various customers and law enforcement agencies; navigation and tracking devices installed in vehicles; and SMART, a portable transmitter installed in vehicles that sends a signal to the base site enabling the location of vehicles, equipment, or an individual. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Azor, Israel.

About Ciena

(Get Free Report)

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company’s Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services. Its products include 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, Waveserver stackable interconnect system, and the 6500 Reconfigurable line system, and the 5400 family of Packet-Optical platforms, as well as 8100 coherent routing platforms; 3000 family of service delivery switches and the 5000 family of service aggregation switches, as well as 8700 Packetwave Platform and 6500 Packet Transport System. This segment also sells operating system software and enhanced software features embedded in each of its products. The company’s Blue Planet Automation Software and Services segment provides multi-domain service orchestration, inventory, route optimization and analysis, multi-cloud orchestration, and unified assurance and analytics services. Its Platform Software and Service segment offers MCP domain controller solution, and OneControl unified management system, as well as planning tools. The company’s Global Services segment provides maintenance support and training, installation and deployment, and consulting and network design services. Ciena Corporation was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Hanover, Maryland.