Oshkosh (NYSE:OSK) and QuantumScape (NYSE:QS) Critical Analysis

Oshkosh (NYSE:OSK) and QuantumScape (NYSE:QS) are both mid-cap auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Oshkosh and QuantumScape, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oshkosh	0	8	10	0	2.56
QuantumScape	1	6	0	0	1.86

Oshkosh presently has a consensus price target of $165.38, suggesting a potential upside of 18.18%. QuantumScape has a consensus price target of $11.13, suggesting a potential upside of 50.04%. Given QuantumScape’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe QuantumScape is more favorable than Oshkosh.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Oshkosh and QuantumScape”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oshkosh	$10.42 billion	0.84	$647.00 million	$8.98	15.58
QuantumScape	N/A	N/A	-$477.86 million	($0.71)	-10.45

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

Profitability

This table compares Oshkosh and QuantumScape’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oshkosh	5.54%	13.90%	6.27%
QuantumScape	N/A	-39.90%	-35.31%

Volatility & Risk

Oshkosh has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, QuantumScape has a beta of 2.6, suggesting that its share price is 160% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.4% of Oshkosh shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 29.9% of QuantumScape shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Oshkosh shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of QuantumScape shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Oshkosh beats QuantumScape on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oshkosh

Oshkosh Corporation provides purpose-built vehicles and equipment worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Access, Defense, and Vocational segment. Its Access Equipment segment design and manufacture aerial work platform and telehandlers for use in construction, industrial, and maintenance applications; offers financing and leasing solutions including rental fleet loans, leases, and floor plan and retail financing; and towing and recovery equipment, which includes carriers, wreckers, and rotators, as well as provides equipment installation and sale of chassis and service parts. The Defense segment engages in the manufacture and sale of heavy, medium, and light tactical wheeled vehicles and related services for department of defense. Its Vocational segment offers custom and commercial firefighting equipment, fire apparatus, and emergency vehicles, including pumpers, aerial platform, ladder and tiller trucks, and tankers; light, medium, and heavy-duty rescue vehicles; and wildland rough terrain response, bomb squad, hazardous materials control vehicles, mobile command and control centers, and other emergency response vehicles. Additionally, this segment produces and sells custom and commercial firefighting vehicles, as well as command vehicles, ARFF vehicles; design and manufacture refuse collection vehicles for waste services industry; front discharge concrete mixers for the concrete ready-mix industry; and field service vehicles and truck-mounted cranes for construction, equipment dealer, building supply, utility, tire service, railroad, and mining industries. Further, the company provides its products through direct sales representatives, dealers, and distributors. Oshkosh Corporation was formerly known as Oshkosh Truck Corporation. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

About QuantumScape

QuantumScape Corporation, a research and development stage company, focuses on the development and commercialization of solid-state lithium-metal batteries for electric vehicles and other applications. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.