Reviewing Identiv (NASDAQ:INVE) & Socket Mobile (NASDAQ:SCKT)

Identiv (NASDAQ:INVE) and Socket Mobile (NASDAQ:SCKT) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Identiv has a beta of 1.35, indicating that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Socket Mobile has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Identiv and Socket Mobile’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Identiv	308.59%	-13.75%	-12.80%
Socket Mobile	-17.13%	-16.35%	-10.49%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Identiv and Socket Mobile, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Identiv	0	0	3	0	3.00
Socket Mobile	0	0	0	0	0.00

Identiv presently has a consensus price target of $5.33, suggesting a potential upside of 47.33%. Given Identiv’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Identiv is more favorable than Socket Mobile.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Identiv and Socket Mobile”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Identiv	$23.54 million	3.65	$74.82 million	$3.04	1.19
Socket Mobile	$16.71 million	0.48	-$2.24 million	($0.38)	-2.66

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

65.2% of Identiv shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.8% of Socket Mobile shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.6% of Identiv shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 48.1% of Socket Mobile shares are owned 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.

Summary

Identiv beats Socket Mobile on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Identiv

Identiv, Inc., a security technology company, that provides secure identification and physical security solutions that secure things, data, and physical places worldwide. It operates in two segments, Identity and Premises. The Identity segment offers products and solutions that enables secure access to information serving the logical access and cyber security markets, as well as protecting connected objects and information using radio-frequency identification embedded security. The Premises segment provides solutions for premises security market, such as access control, video surveillance, analytics, audio, access readers, and identities to government facilities, schools, utilities, hospitals, stores, and apartment buildings. The company sells its products through dealers, systems integrators, value added resellers, and resellers. The company was formerly known as Identive Group, Inc. and changed its name to Identiv, Inc. in May 2014. Identiv, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

About Socket Mobile

Socket Mobile, Inc. provides data capture and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, Asia, and internationally. Its products and solutions are integrated into mobile applications for applications in the areas of point of sale, commercial services, asset tracking, manufacturing and quality control processes, transportation and logistics, event management, medical, and education. The company also offers cordless data capture devices that connect through Bluetooth and work with applications running on smartphones, mobile computers, and tablets; SocketScan and DuraScan 700 series, companion scanners and 800 series, attachable scanners, and wearables; and DuraSled, a barcode scanning sled that protects phones from impact damage and provides charging solutions. In addition, it offers D600, a handheld model to reads and writes various types of electronic SmartTags and transfers data with near-field communication (NFC); S550, a contactless membership card reader/writer; and S370 product that supports barcode scanning, and NFC reading and writing technologies. Further, the company provides SocketCam C820 and C860, which are camera-based barcode scanners; software developer kits, such as CaptureSDK that enables the App providers to modify captured data, control the placement of the barcoded or RFID data in their applications, and control the feedback to the user. It serves retail, commercial services, industrial and manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and healthcare industries through a network of distributors, online resellers, and application providers, as well as online stores. The company was formerly known as Socket Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Socket Mobile, Inc. in April 2008. Socket Mobile, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.