Analyzing Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) and Impinj (NASDAQ:PI)

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) and Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

Applied Materials has a beta of 1.7, meaning that its stock price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Impinj has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Applied Materials and Impinj, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Applied Materials	1	13	17	0	2.52
Impinj	0	1	6	0	2.86

Applied Materials presently has a consensus price target of $193.8846, suggesting a potential upside of 19.69%. Impinj has a consensus price target of $163.2857, suggesting a potential downside of 7.11%. Given Applied Materials’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Applied Materials is more favorable than Impinj.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.6% of Applied Materials shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Applied Materials shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 51.0% of Impinj shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Applied Materials and Impinj”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Applied Materials	$27.18 billion	4.75	$7.18 billion	$8.39	19.31
Impinj	$366.09 million	13.97	$40.84 million	$0.01	17,578.00

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

Profitability

This table compares Applied Materials and Impinj’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Applied Materials	23.88%	40.96%	22.99%
Impinj	0.18%	8.14%	2.64%

Summary

Applied Materials beats Impinj on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc. engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. The company operates through three segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment develops, manufactures, and sells various manufacturing equipment that is used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits. This segment also offers various technologies, including epitaxy, ion implantation, oxidation/nitridation, rapid thermal processing, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, electrochemical deposition, atomic layer deposition, etching, and selective deposition and removal, as well as metrology and inspection tools. The Applied Global Services segment provides integrated solutions to optimize equipment and fab performance and productivity comprising spares, upgrades, services, remanufactured earlier generation equipment, and factory automation software for semiconductor, display, and other products. The Display and Adjacent Markets segment offers products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays; organic light-emitting diodes; and other display technologies for TVs, monitors, laptops, personal computers, electronic tablets, smart phones, and other consumer-oriented devices. It operates in the United States, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe. The company was incorporated in 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, 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.