Analyzing Ideal Power (NASDAQ:IPWR) & Oxford Instruments (OTCMKTS:OXINF)

Ideal Power (NASDAQ:IPWR) and Oxford Instruments (OTCMKTS:OXINF) are both small-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ideal Power and Oxford Instruments, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ideal Power	0	0	1	0	3.00
Oxford Instruments	0	0	0	1	4.00

Ideal Power presently has a consensus target price of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 100.00%. Given Ideal Power’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Ideal Power is more favorable than Oxford Instruments.

Risk & Volatility

Ideal Power has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oxford Instruments has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

16.4% of Ideal Power shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.0% of Ideal Power shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Ideal Power and Oxford Instruments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ideal Power	-7,152.45%	-55.69%	-49.80%
Oxford Instruments	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ideal Power and Oxford Instruments”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ideal Power	$200,000.00	285.25	-$9.95 million	($1.40)	-5.00
Oxford Instruments	$536.00 million	2.65	$70.63 million	N/A	N/A

Oxford Instruments has higher revenue and earnings than Ideal Power.

Summary

Oxford Instruments beats Ideal Power on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ideal Power

Ideal Power Inc. focuses on the development and commercialization of its bidirectional bipolar junction TRANsistor solid-state switch technology. It also offers SymCool Power Module designed to meet low conduction loss needs of the solid-state circuit breaker market. The company serves electric and hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging, renewable energy and energy storage system power converters, uninterruptible power supplies for data centers, industrial motor drives, solid-state circuit breakers, distribution and transmission switches and controls, and other industrial and military markets. The company was formerly known as Ideal Power Converters Inc. and changed its name to Ideal Power Inc. in July 2013. Ideal Power Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Oxford Instruments

Oxford Instruments plc provide scientific technology products and services for academic and commercial organizations worldwide. It operates through three segments: Materials & Characterisation, Research & Discovery, and Service & Healthcare. The company offers atomic force, electron, and Raman microscopy; deposition tools comprising plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, chemical vapour deposition, inductively coupled plasma chemical vapour deposition, atomic layer deposition, and ion beam deposition systems; and etch tools, including inductively coupled plasma etching, reactive ion etching, deep silicon etching, atomic layer etching, and ion beam etching systems. It also provides low temperature systems, such as dilution refrigerators, high field magnets, and cryostats; optical imaging products, including cameras, confocal microscopy, and 3d and 4d visualisation software; nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) products comprising NMR spectrometers, TD-NMR research, QA/QC analyzers, and rock core analyzers; and X-Ray sources, tubes, and power supply products. Its products are used in various industries, such as advanced manufacturing, agriculture and food, astronomy, automotive and aerospace, bio imaging and life science, chemical and catalysis, energy generation and storage, forensics and environment, geology, petrology, mining, metals, alloys, composites, ceramics, pharma, photonics, polymers, quantum technologies, semiconductors, microelectronics, and data storage. Oxford Instruments plc was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Abingdon, the United Kingdom.