Contrasting KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) and Stardust Power (NASDAQ:SDST)

Stardust Power (NASDAQ:SDST) and KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Stardust Power has a beta of 0.23, meaning that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, KLA has a beta of 1.52, meaning that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

32.8% of Stardust Power shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of KLA shares are owned by institutional investors. 55.3% of Stardust Power shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 91.5% of KLA shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Stardust Power and KLA, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stardust Power	1	1	2	2	2.83
KLA	0	14	12	0	2.46

Stardust Power currently has a consensus target price of $28.17, suggesting a potential upside of 507.04%. KLA has a consensus target price of $1,241.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1.93%. Given Stardust Power’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Stardust Power is more favorable than KLA.

Profitability

This table compares Stardust Power and KLA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stardust Power	N/A	N/A	-268.49%
KLA	33.83%	113.10%	30.03%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Stardust Power and KLA”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stardust Power	N/A	N/A	-$23.75 million	($5.60)	-0.83
KLA	$12.52 billion	12.78	$4.06 billion	$31.85	38.24

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

Summary

KLA beats Stardust Power on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Stardust Power

Stardust Power Inc. is a vertically-integrated lithium refinery that engages in producing battery-grade lithium. The company was founded in 2022 and is based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

About KLA

KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB and Component Inspection. The company offers inspection and review tools to identify, locate, characterize, review, and analyze defects on various surfaces of patterned and unpatterned wafers; metrology systems that are used to measure pattern dimensions, film thickness, film stress, layer-to-layer alignment, pattern placement, surface topography, and electro-optical properties for wafers; chemical process control equipment; wired and wireless sensor wafers and reticles; wafer defect inspection, review, and metrology systems; reticle inspection and metrology systems; and semiconductor software solutions that provide run-time process control, defect excursion identification, process corrections, and defect classification to accelerate yield learning rates and reduce production risk. It also provides etch, plasma dicing, deposition, and other wafer processing technologies and solutions for the semiconductor and microelectronics industry. In addition, the company offers direct imaging, inspection, optical shaping, inkjet and additive printing, UV laser drilling, and computer-aided manufacturing and engineering solutions for the PCB market; inspection and electrical testing systems to identify and classify defects, as well as systems to repair defects for the display market; and inspection and metrology systems for quality control and yield improvement in advanced and traditional semiconductor packaging markets. The company was formerly known as KLA-Tencor Corporation and changed its name to KLA Corporation in July 2019. KLA Corporation was incorporated in 1975 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.