Head to Head Review: Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) versus American Noble Gas (NYSE:INFY)

American Noble Gas (NYSE:INFY) and Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

16.2% of American Noble Gas shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.1% of Leidos shares are held by institutional investors. 22.4% of American Noble Gas shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Leidos 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.

Dividends

American Noble Gas pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Leidos pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. American Noble Gas pays out 57.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Leidos pays out 15.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Leidos has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for American Noble Gas and Leidos, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Noble Gas	1	7	2	0	2.10
Leidos	0	4	9	0	2.69

American Noble Gas currently has a consensus price target of $16.89, suggesting a potential upside of 14.88%. Leidos has a consensus price target of $214.18, suggesting a potential upside of 22.02%. Given Leidos’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Leidos is more favorable than American Noble Gas.

Risk and Volatility

American Noble Gas has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Leidos has a beta of 0.59, indicating that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares American Noble Gas and Leidos”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Noble Gas	$19.28 billion	3.09	$3.16 billion	$0.77	19.09
Leidos	$17.17 billion	1.29	$1.45 billion	$11.13	15.77

American Noble Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Leidos. Leidos is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Noble Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares American Noble Gas and Leidos’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Noble Gas	16.16%	30.60%	19.26%
Leidos	8.43%	32.95%	11.60%

Summary

American Noble Gas beats Leidos on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Noble Gas

Infosys Ltd. is a digital services and consulting company, which engages in the provision of end-to-end business solutions. It operates through the following segments: Financial Services, Retail, Communication, Energy, Utilities, Resources, and Services, Manufacturing, Hi-Tech, Life Sciences, and All Other. The company was founded by Dinesh Krishnan Swamy, Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Narayana Ramarao Nagavara Murthy, Raghavan N. S., Ashok Arora, Nandan M. Nilekani, and S. D. Shibulal on July 2, 1981 and is headquartered in Bangalore, India.

About Leidos

Leidos Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides services and solutions in the defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Defense Solutions, Civil, and Health segments. The Defense Solutions segment offers national security solutions and systems for air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace for the U.S. Intelligence Community, the Department of Defense, the space development agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, defense information systems agency, military services, and government agencies of U.S. allies abroad, as well as other federal and commercial customers in the national security industry. The solutions include technology, large-scale systems, command and control platforms, data analytics, logistics, and cybersecurity solutions, as well as intelligence analysis and operations support services to critical missions. The Civil segment provides systems integration services to air navigation service providers, including the federal aviation administration, the En route automation modernization, advanced technology oceanic procedure, time based flow management, terminal flight data management, geo-7, and future flight services, as well as enterprise-information display systems; and security detection services. It also offers information technology (IT) solutions in cloud computing, mobility, application modernization, DevOps, data center, network modernization, asset management, help desk operations, and digital workplace enablement; and environment, energy, and infrastructure services. The Health segment offers solutions to federal and commercial customers responsible for health and well-being of people, include health information management, managed health, digital modernization, and life sciences research and development services. Leidos Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.