Contrasting Nauticus Robotics (NASDAQ:KITT) and Palladyne AI (NASDAQ:PDYN)

Palladyne AI (NASDAQ:PDYN) and Nauticus Robotics (NASDAQ:KITT) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Palladyne AI and Nauticus Robotics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Palladyne AI	-1,390.02%	-74.87%	-57.30%
Nauticus Robotics	-850.23%	N/A	-84.24%

Volatility and Risk

Palladyne AI has a beta of 3.36, meaning that its share price is 236% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nauticus Robotics has a beta of 0.08, meaning that its share price is 92% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.0% of Palladyne AI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.5% of Nauticus Robotics shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.0% of Palladyne AI shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.0% of Nauticus Robotics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Palladyne AI and Nauticus Robotics’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Palladyne AI	$6.15 million	8.69	-$115.59 million	($3.94)	-0.51
Nauticus Robotics	$4.25 million	1.37	-$50.69 million	($1.28)	-0.07

Nauticus Robotics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Palladyne AI. Palladyne AI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nauticus Robotics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Palladyne AI and Nauticus Robotics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Palladyne AI	0	0	0	0	N/A
Nauticus Robotics	0	0	0	0	N/A

Summary

Nauticus Robotics beats Palladyne AI on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Palladyne AI

Palladyne AI Corp., a software company, focuses on delivering software that enhances the utility and functionality of third-party stationary and mobile robotic systems in the United States. Its Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) software platform enables robots to observe, learn, reason, and act in structured and unstructured environments. The company's software platform enables robotic systems to perceive their environment and quickly adapt to changing circumstances by generalizing from their experience using dynamic real-time operations without extensive programming and with minimal robot training. It serves customers from various industries, such as industrial manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, defense, infrastructure maintenance and repair, energy, aerospace and aviation, and others. The company was formerly known as Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation and changed its name to Palladyne AI Corp. in March 2024. Palladyne AI Corp. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About Nauticus Robotics

Nauticus Robotics, Inc. develops ocean robots, cloud software, and services to the ocean industry. The company offers Aquanaut, an autonomous underwater vehicle with sensor suite, which provides capability to observe and inspect subsea assets or other subsea features; Olympic Arm, an all-electric manipulator designed for a variety of intervention tasks on work class remotely operated vehicles; and ToolKITT, a software platform, which consists of interrelated products for ocean sensing, manipulation, autonomous behaviors, survey, search and recovery, and manual intervention. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Webster, Texas.