Star Group (NYSE:SGU) and SiTime (NASDAQ:SITM) Critical Comparison

Star Group (NYSE:SGU) and SiTime (NASDAQ:SITM) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Star Group and SiTime, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Star Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
SiTime	1	0	5	0	2.67

SiTime has a consensus price target of $243.33, indicating a potential upside of 0.69%. Given SiTime’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SiTime is more favorable than Star Group.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

40.4% of Star Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.3% of SiTime shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.4% of Star Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of SiTime shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Star Group has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SiTime has a beta of 2.18, indicating that its stock price is 118% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Star Group and SiTime’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Star Group	3.77%	21.24%	6.79%
SiTime	-32.15%	-7.54%	-6.16%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Star Group and SiTime”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Star Group	$1.77 billion	0.22	$35.22 million	$1.32	8.84
SiTime	$202.70 million	31.00	-$93.60 million	($3.48)	-69.45

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

Summary

Star Group beats SiTime on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Star Group

Star Group, L.P., together with its subsidiaries, provides home heating oil and propane products and services to residential and commercial customers in the United States. It offers gasoline and diesel fuel; and installs, maintain, and repairs heating and air conditioning equipment. As of September 30, 2023, the company served approximately 402,200 full service residential and commercial home heating oil and propane customers and 52,400 customers on a delivery only basis. It also sells gasoline and diesel fuel to approximately 26,600 customers. The company was formerly known as Star Gas Partners, L.P. and changed its name to Star Group, L.P. in October 2017. Star Group, L.P. was incorporated in 1995 and is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

About SiTime

SiTime Corporation designs, develops, and sells silicon timing systems solutions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, Singapore, and internationally. The company provides resonators and clock integrated circuits, and various types of oscillators. It serves various markets, including communications, datacenter, enterprise, automotive, industrial, internet of things, mobile, consumer, and aerospace and defense. The company sells its products directly to customers, distributors, and resellers. SiTime Corporation was incorporated in 2003 and is based in Santa Clara, California.