Critical Survey: POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) versus Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC)

Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) and POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, POET Technologies has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Kulicke and Soffa Industries and POET Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	0	2	3	0	2.60
POET Technologies	0	0	2	1	3.33

Kulicke and Soffa Industries currently has a consensus price target of $52.40, suggesting a potential upside of 20.77%. POET Technologies has a consensus price target of $6.25, suggesting a potential upside of 24.25%. Given POET Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe POET Technologies is more favorable than Kulicke and Soffa Industries.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.2% of Kulicke and Soffa Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.0% of POET Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Kulicke and Soffa Industries shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Kulicke and Soffa Industries and POET Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	-9.77%	-0.92%	-0.71%
POET Technologies	N/A	-194.16%	-132.32%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Kulicke and Soffa Industries and POET Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	$706.23 million	3.30	-$69.01 million	$0.12	361.58
POET Technologies	$119,946.00	3,212.72	-$20.27 million	($0.59)	-8.53

POET Technologies has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Kulicke and Soffa Industries. POET Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kulicke and Soffa Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Kulicke and Soffa Industries beats POET Technologies on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kulicke and Soffa Industries

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells capital equipment and tools used to assemble semiconductor devices. It operates through four segments: Ball Bonding Equipment, Wedge Bonding Equipment, Advanced Solutions, and Aftermarket Products and Services (APS). The company offers ball bonding equipment, wafer level bonding equipment, wedge bonding equipment; and advanced display, die-attach, and thermocompression systems and solutions, as well as tools, spares and services for equipment. It also services, maintains, repairs, and upgrades equipment. The company serves semiconductor device manufacturers, integrated device manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers, other electronics manufacturers, industrial manufacturers, foundry service providers, and automotive electronics suppliers primarily in the United States and the Asia/Pacific region. The company was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

About POET Technologies

POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and China. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, optical coherence tomography for medical devices, and virtual reality systems markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.