Critical Comparison: Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) and Vishay Precision Group (NYSE:VPG)

Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) and Vishay Precision Group (NYSE:VPG) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.6% of Vishay Precision Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.7% of Vishay Precision Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Yaskawa Electric has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vishay Precision Group has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Yaskawa Electric and Vishay Precision Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yaskawa Electric	0	1	0	0	2.00
Vishay Precision Group	0	0	1	0	3.00

Vishay Precision Group has a consensus price target of $28.50, suggesting a potential downside of 11.93%. Given Vishay Precision Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Vishay Precision Group is more favorable than Yaskawa Electric.

Profitability

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and Vishay Precision Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yaskawa Electric	10.37%	12.90%	7.54%
Vishay Precision Group	-0.43%	1.72%	1.23%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and Vishay Precision Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Yaskawa Electric	$3.53 billion	1.53	$376.12 million	$2.83	14.70
Vishay Precision Group	$306.52 million	1.40	$9.91 million	($0.09)	-359.57

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

Summary

Yaskawa Electric beats Vishay Precision Group on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Yaskawa Electric

YASKAWA Electric Corporation engages in motion control, robotics, system engineering, and other businesses worldwide. It manufactures and sells various AC drives, including general purpose AC drives, specific purpose AC drives, AC Drive for systems, regenerative energy saving units, and PM motors for use in household appliances, such as air conditioners and refrigerators; social infrastructures comprising elevators, escalators, trains, cranes, fans, and pumps; and factories that manufacture printing machinery, textile machinery, rubber machinery, and other materials. The company also offers rotary servo motors, direct drive servo motors, linear motors/linear sliders, machine controllers, positioning sensor encoders, and servo amplifiers for use in industrial robots, semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, machine tools, flat panel display manufacturing equipment, and metal working machines; and arc and spot welding, handling/assembling, collaborative, biomedical, palletizing, press handling, sealing/cutting/laser machining, deburring, painting, glass substrates transfer, and semiconductor wafer transfer robots for use in semiconductor wafer conveyance, arc welding, spot welding, handling, assembly, and palletizing applications. In addition, it provides industrial system electrical products, such as medium-voltage AC drives, system use AC drives, and system controllers for use in iron and steel systems, water and wastewater treatment, crane, and paper-making/film/port cargo handling/fiber/printing applications. Further, the company offers equipment for energy saving and creation comprising PV inverters, systems for large wind turbines, control equipment for small-scale power generation, and motor drive systems for use in photovoltaic power generation, large-scale wind power generation, small-scale power generation, and electric vehicles. The company was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Kitakyushu, Japan.

About Vishay Precision Group

Vishay Precision Group, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets specialized sensors, weighing solutions, and measurement systems in the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Asia, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Sensors, Weighing Solutions, and Measurement Systems. Its product portfolio includes precision resistors, strain gages, load cells and force measurement transducers, on-board weighing systems, and process weighing products; rolling force measuring load cell systems and pressure transmitters; web tension measurement load cells and systems; and optical strip width gages; and laser velocimeters for speed and length measurements and closed-loop crop optimization control systems for optimal strip cuts. The company also offers data acquisition systems and sensors for product safety testing; thermal-mechanical simulation systems for metallurgical research; and conditioning, data acquisition and control systems, as well as electronic displays, signal processors, microelectromechanical system sensors, cabling, system software, and communications software/hardware. Its products are used in industrial comprising waste management, bulk hauling, logging, scales manufacturing, engineering systems, pharmaceutical, oil, chemical, steel, paper, and food industries, as well as test and measurement, steel, medical, construction, agricultural, and consumer markets. The company offers its products under the Alpha Electronics, Powertron, Vishay Foil Resistors, Micro-Measurements, APR, Celtron, Revere, Sensortronics, Tedea-Huntleigh, Stress-tek, Vulcan, BLH Nobel, KELK, and DTS brands. Vishay Precision Group, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania.