Contrasting United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) & MediaTek (OTCMKTS:MDTKF)

United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) and MediaTek (OTCMKTS:MDTKF) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

5.1% of United Microelectronics shares are held by institutional investors. 8.0% of United Microelectronics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares United Microelectronics and MediaTek’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Microelectronics	27.41%	17.43%	10.98%
MediaTek	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares United Microelectronics and MediaTek’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Microelectronics	$7.25 billion	2.82	$1.96 billion	$0.79	10.34
MediaTek	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

United Microelectronics has higher revenue and earnings than MediaTek.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for United Microelectronics and MediaTek, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Microelectronics	0	2	0	0	2.00
MediaTek	1	1	0	0	1.50

United Microelectronics presently has a consensus price target of $7.68, indicating a potential downside of 6.00%. Given United Microelectronics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe United Microelectronics is more favorable than MediaTek.

Summary

United Microelectronics beats MediaTek on 8 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Microelectronics

United Microelectronics Corporation operates as a semiconductor wafer foundry in Taiwan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides circuit design, mask tooling, wafer fabrication, and assembly and testing services. It serves fabless design companies and integrated device manufacturers. The company was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.

About MediaTek

MediaTek Inc. researches, develops, produces, and markets integrated circuits (ICs) worldwide. It provides multimedia, computer peripherals oriented, consumer-oriented, and other application ICs. The company offers products for smartphones, such as MediaTek Helio chipsets; octa-core and quad-core system-on-chips (SoC); 32-bit chipsets; and SOCs for Google Mobile Service Express. It also provides tablet chipsets that are used in enterprise systems; streaming and traditional audio products for connected audio systems, sound bars, and other applications; chipsets for ultra high definition 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD players, and set top boxes; multi-core smart TV SoCs and chipset for digital TVs; and products for optical disk drives. In addition, the company offers home networking and broadband Wi-Fi products, which are used in PCs, broadband gateways, digital TVs, Blu-ray players, IPTV set-top boxes, and web cams; and automotive solutions, such as mmWave radar sensors, telematics solutions, vision advanced driver systems, and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Further, it provides chipsets for location intelligence, wearable products, smart home solutions, and machine to machine applications; and Narrow-Band Internet of Things (IoT), a 3GPP standardized cellular based low power wide area technology. Additionally, the company is involved in the provision of software and hardware design, development, test, maintenance and repair, and technological consultation services; import and export of its products; sale and delegation of patents and circuit layout rights for its products; and investment activity. It also provides research, marketing, management, and technology services. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan.