Contrasting U-Haul (NASDAQ:UHAL) & McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC)

McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) and U-Haul (NASDAQ:UHAL) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for McGrath RentCorp and U-Haul, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
McGrath RentCorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
U-Haul	0	0	0	0	N/A

McGrath RentCorp presently has a consensus target price of $116.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.56%. Given McGrath RentCorp’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe McGrath RentCorp is more favorable than U-Haul.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares McGrath RentCorp and U-Haul’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
McGrath RentCorp	$865.53 million	3.00	$174.62 million	$5.13	20.64
U-Haul	$5.63 billion	2.42	$628.71 million	$3.04	22.87

U-Haul has higher revenue and earnings than McGrath RentCorp. McGrath RentCorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than U-Haul, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

McGrath RentCorp has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, U-Haul has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.1% of McGrath RentCorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.6% of U-Haul shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of McGrath RentCorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 50.1% of U-Haul shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares McGrath RentCorp and U-Haul’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
McGrath RentCorp	13.39%	13.33%	5.58%
U-Haul	11.01%	8.77%	3.32%

Summary

McGrath RentCorp beats U-Haul on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About McGrath RentCorp

McGrath RentCorp operates as a business to business rental company in the United States and internationally. It rents and sells relocatable modular buildings, portable storage containers, and electronic test equipment. The company operates through four segments: Mobile Modular, Portable Storage, TRS-RenTelco, and Enviroplex. The Mobile Modular segment rents and sells modular buildings designed for use as classrooms, temporary offices adjacent to existing facilities, sales offices, construction field offices, restroom buildings, health care clinics, child care facilities, office spaces, and various other purposes. The TRS-RenTelco segment rents and sells general purpose electronic test equipment, such as oscilloscopes, amplifiers, analyzers, signal source, and power source test equipment primarily to aerospace, defense, electronics, industrial, research, and semiconductor industries. It also provides communications test equipment, including network and transmission test equipment for various fiber, copper, and wireless networks to the manufacturers of communications equipment and products, electrical and communications installation contractors, field technicians, and service providers. The Portable Storage segment offers steel containers to provide a temporary storage solution. The Enviroplex segment manufactures and sells portable classrooms directly to public school districts and other educational institutions in California. The company was incorporated in 1979 and is based in Livermore, California.

About U-Haul

U-Haul Holding Company operates as a do-it-yourself moving and storage operator for household and commercial goods in the United States and Canada. The company’s Moving and Storage segment rents trucks, trailers, portable moving and storage units, specialty rental items, and self-storage spaces primarily to the household movers; and sells moving supplies, towing accessories, and propane. It also provides uhaul.com, an online marketplace that connects consumers to independent Moving Help service providers and independent self-storage affiliates; auto transport and tow dolly options to transport vehicles; and specialty boxes for dishes, computers, flat screen television, and sensitive electronic equipment, as well as tapes, security locks, and packing supplies. This segment rents its products and services through a network of approximately 2,300 company operated retail moving stores and 21,000 independent U-Haul dealers. It also has a rental fleet of approximately 188,700 trucks, 139,400 trailers, and 43,700 towing devices; and 1,962 self-storage locations with approximately 1,004,000 rentable storage units. The company’s Property and Casualty Insurance segment offers loss adjusting and claims handling services. It also provides moving and storage protection packages, such as Safemove and Safetow packages, which offer moving and towing customers with a damage waiver, cargo protection, and medical and life insurance coverage; Safestor that protects storage customers from loss on their goods in storage; Safestor Mobile, which protects customers stored belongings; and Safemove Plus, which provides rental customers with a layer of primary liability protection. Its Life Insurance segment provides life and health insurance products primarily to the senior market through the direct writing and reinsuring of life insurance, Medicare supplement, and annuity policies. The company was formerly known as AMERCO. The company was founded in 1945 and is based in Reno, Nevada.