Critical Analysis: Nauticus Robotics (KITT) and Its Competitors

Nauticus Robotics (NASDAQ:KITT) is one of 22 public companies in the “General industrial machinery,” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Nauticus Robotics to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.4% of Nauticus Robotics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.0% of shares of all “General industrial machinery,” companies are owned by institutional investors. 47.9% of Nauticus Robotics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.9% of shares of all “General industrial machinery,” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Nauticus Robotics has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nauticus Robotics’ peers have a beta of 1.15, indicating that their average share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Nauticus Robotics and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nauticus Robotics	0	1	1	0	2.50
Nauticus Robotics Competitors	88	209	310	7	2.38

Nauticus Robotics currently has a consensus price target of $3.63, suggesting a potential upside of 118.37%. As a group, “General industrial machinery,” companies have a potential upside of 23.89%. Given Nauticus Robotics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Nauticus Robotics is more favorable than its peers.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nauticus Robotics and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nauticus Robotics	$10.16 million	-$28.26 million	-2.55
Nauticus Robotics Competitors	$714.00 million	$11.43 million	-0.83

Nauticus Robotics’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Nauticus Robotics. Nauticus Robotics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Nauticus Robotics and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nauticus Robotics	-37.54%	-2,774.34%	-50.31%
Nauticus Robotics Competitors	-179.10%	-284.56%	-35.29%

Summary

Nauticus Robotics peers beat Nauticus Robotics on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

Nauticus Robotics Company Profile

Nauticus Robotics, Inc. develops and provides ocean robots, software, and services to the ocean industry. The company offers Aquanaut, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with sensor suite, which provides capability to observe and inspect subsea assets or other subsea features; and Argonaut, a derivative product of the Aquanaut that is used for non-industrial and government applications. It also provides Olympic Arm, a subsea tool; ToolKITT, a cloud software platform, which consists of interrelated products for ocean sensing, manipulation, autonomous behaviors, survey, search and recovery, and manual intervention; and Hydronaut, an optionally crewed vessel that will support the real-time operations of Aquanaut in commercial applications. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in Webster, Texas.