Comparing Geospace Technologies (NASDAQ:GEOS) and Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT)

Geospace Technologies (NASDAQ:GEOS) and Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Geospace Technologies and Camtek’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Geospace Technologies	-14.03%	0.69%	0.62%
Camtek	28.40%	24.57%	15.09%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Geospace Technologies and Camtek, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Geospace Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00
Camtek	0	1	9	1	3.00

Camtek has a consensus target price of $89.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.19%. Given Camtek’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Camtek is more favorable than Geospace Technologies.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Geospace Technologies and Camtek”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Geospace Technologies	$116.54 million	1.27	-$6.58 million	($1.28)	-9.02
Camtek	$429.23 million	9.34	$118.51 million	$2.61	33.70

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

57.2% of Geospace Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.9% of Camtek shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.6% of Geospace Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 79.4% of Camtek shares are owned 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.

Volatility and Risk

Geospace Technologies has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Camtek has a beta of 1.34, meaning that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Camtek beats Geospace Technologies on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Geospace Technologies

Geospace Technologies Corporation designs and manufactures instruments and equipment used in the oil and gas industry to acquire seismic data in order to locate, characterize, and monitor hydrocarbon producing reservoirs. The company operates through three segments: Oil and Gas Markets, Adjacent Markets, and Emerging Markets. The Oil and Gas Markets segment offers wireless seismic data acquisition systems and reservoir characterization products and services, as well as traditional seismic exploration products, such as geophones, hydrophones, leader wires, connectors, cables, marine streamer retrieval and steering devices, and other seismic products. The Adjacent Markets segment provides industrial products, including imaging equipment, water meter products, remote shut-off valves, and Internet of Things platform, as well as seismic sensors for vibration monitoring and geotechnical applications, such as mine safety and earthquake detection applications; and electronic pre-press products that employ direct thermal imaging, direct-to-screen printing systems, and digital inkjet printing technologies targeted at the commercial and industrial graphics, textile, and flexographic printing industries. The Emerging Markets segment designs and sells products used for border and perimeter security surveillance, cross-border tunneling detection, and other products targeted at movement monitoring, intrusion detection, and situational awareness. This segment serves various agencies of the United States government, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies. The company operates in Asia, Canada, Europe, South America, the United States, and internationally. Geospace Technologies Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Camtek

Camtek Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells inspection and metrology equipment for semiconductor industry. The company provides Eagle-i, a system that delivers 2D inspection and metrology capabilities; Eagle-AP, which addresses the advanced packaging market using software and hardware technologies that deliver superior 2D and 3D inspection and metrology capabilities on the same platform; and Golden Eagle, a panel inspection and metrology system to address the challenges fanout wafer level packaging applications. It also develops automatic defect classification, which provides automatic defect classification of color images utilizing deep learning techniques to reduce and eliminate manual verification. In addition, the company offers MicroProf AP, a wafer metrology tool for applications at 3D packaging process steps; MicroProf DI, an optical inspection tool that enables inspection of structured and unstructured wafers for manufacturing process; MicroProf FE, a 2D/3D wafer metrology tool that serve front end HVM fab; MicroProf FS, an wafer metrology tool configurable for wafer foundry; MicroProf PT for hybrid metrology applications to common panel sizes; MicroProf MHU metrology tool, a material handling unit for semiconductor, MEMS, sapphire, and LED industries; MicroProf TL, an optical surface measurement tool for fully automatic 3D surface measurements; MicroProf 100, a universal surface metrology tool for determination of topography and film and sample thickness; MicroProf 200, a measuring device for contactless and non-destructive characterization of surfaces and films; and MicroProf 300, a SurfaceSens technology for quality assurance, development, and manufacturing. It serves semiconductor manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test, integrated device manufacturers, and wafer level packaging subcontractors. Camtek Ltd. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Migdal Haemek, Israel.