Head-To-Head Survey: Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) vs. GCT Semiconductor (NYSE:GCTS)

GCT Semiconductor (NYSE:GCTS) and Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares GCT Semiconductor and Impinj”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GCT Semiconductor	$9.13 million	8.60	-$12.38 million	($0.44)	-3.68
Impinj	$366.09 million	9.18	$40.84 million	($0.04)	-2,899.50

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

Volatility and Risk

GCT Semiconductor has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Impinj has a beta of 1.64, suggesting that its share price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

28.1% of GCT Semiconductor shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of GCT Semiconductor shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.4% of Impinj shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares GCT Semiconductor and Impinj’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GCT Semiconductor	-316.15%	N/A	-96.45%
Impinj	-0.26%	6.45%	1.92%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for GCT Semiconductor and Impinj, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GCT Semiconductor	0	0	1	0	3.00
Impinj	0	1	7	0	2.88

GCT Semiconductor currently has a consensus target price of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 208.64%. Impinj has a consensus target price of $155.38, suggesting a potential upside of 33.97%. Given GCT Semiconductor’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe GCT Semiconductor is more favorable than Impinj.

Summary

Impinj beats GCT Semiconductor on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GCT Semiconductor

GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc., operates as a fabless semiconductor company, designs, develops, and markets integrated circuits for the wireless semiconductor industry. The company provides RF and modem chipsets based on 4G LTE technology, including 4G LTE, 4.5G LTE Advanced, and 4.75G LTE Advanced-Pro. It also develops and sells cellular IoT chipsets for low-speed mobile networks such as eMTC/NB-IOT/Sigfox, and other network protocols; and 5G solutions. Its products and solutions are used in smartphones, tablets, hotspots, CPEs, USB dongles, routers, and M2M applications. The company sells its products directly or indirectly through distributors to original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers primarily in Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, Europe, North America and South America. The company was formerly known as Global Communication Technology, Inc. GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Impinj

Impinj, Inc. operates a cloud connectivity platform in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its platform wirelessly connects items and delivers data about the connected items to business and consumer applications. The company’s platform comprises endpoint ICs, a miniature radios-on-a-chip that attaches to a host item and includes a number to identify the item. Its platform also consists of systems products that consists of reader ICs, readers, and gateways to wirelessly provide power to and communicate bidirectionally with endpoint ICs on host items, as well as to read, write, authenticate, and engage the endpoint ICs on those items; and software and algorithms that enable its partners to solve enterprise business problems, such as retail self-checkout and loss prevention. The company primarily serves retail, supply chain and logistics, automotive, aviation, banking, datacenters, food, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, linen and uniform tracking, sports, and travel industries through original equipment and device manufacturers, tag service bureaus, systems integrators, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, and other solution partners. Impinj, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.