Soitec (OTCMKTS:SLOIF) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Critical Comparison

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Soitec and Applied Materials, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Soitec	1	0	0	0	1.00
Applied Materials	1	13	17	0	2.52

Applied Materials has a consensus price target of $193.88, indicating a potential upside of 19.13%. Given Applied Materials’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Applied Materials is more favorable than Soitec.

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. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Soitec	N/A	N/A	N/A
Applied Materials	23.88%	40.96%	22.99%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Soitec and Applied Materials”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Soitec	$937.30 million	1.43	$98.66 million	N/A	N/A
Applied Materials	$27.18 billion	4.77	$7.18 billion	$8.39	19.40

Applied Materials has higher revenue and earnings than Soitec.

Volatility and Risk

Soitec has a beta of 0.29, indicating that its stock price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Materials has a beta of 1.77, indicating that its stock price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Applied Materials beats Soitec on 12 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Soitec

Soitec SA designs and manufactures semiconductor materials worldwide. Its products are used to manufacture chips that are used in smart phones, tablets, computers, IT servers, and data centers, as well as electronic components in cars, connected devices, and industrial and medical equipment. It provides CONNECT Radio Frequency Silicon-on-Insulator (RF-SOI) for smartphone front-end modules; CONNECT Piezoelectric-on-Insulator RF filters for smartphone; and CONNECT RF gallium nitride for 5g infrastructure base stations and smartphones, as well as CONNECT Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI). The company also offers Auto Power-SOI product for automotive and industrial markets; Auto Smartsic for green mobility; and AUTO POWER-allium nitride for power efficiency, as well as AUTO FD-SOI for automotive radar and processors. In addition, it provides Smart photonics-SOI products for optical networking; Smart Imager-SOI products for next generation 3D image sensing; Smart FD-SOI for ultra low power, energy efficient, and body biasing; smart partially depleted (PD) -SOI for high-performance computing markets. Soitec SA was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Bernin, France.

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.