Comparing Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) & Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM)

Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) and Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Impinj has a beta of 1.67, indicating that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tower Semiconductor has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Impinj and Tower Semiconductor, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Impinj	2	2	5	0	2.33
Tower Semiconductor	0	3	2	0	2.40

Impinj presently has a consensus target price of $167.63, suggesting a potential upside of 64.71%. Tower Semiconductor has a consensus target price of $173.00, suggesting a potential downside of 9.04%. Given Impinj’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Impinj is more favorable than Tower Semiconductor.

Profitability

This table compares Impinj and Tower Semiconductor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Impinj	-3.00%	8.49%	3.11%
Tower Semiconductor	14.08%	7.86%	6.84%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Impinj and Tower Semiconductor”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Impinj	$361.08 million	8.52	-$10.85 million	($0.39)	-260.95
Tower Semiconductor	$1.57 billion	13.66	$220.47 million	$1.93	98.54

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

70.5% of Tower Semiconductor shares are held by institutional investors. 12.4% of Impinj shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Tower Semiconductor shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Tower Semiconductor beats Impinj on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Impinj

Impinj, Inc. operates a cloud connectivity platform in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its platform wirelessly connects items and delivers data about the connected items to business and consumer applications. The company’s platform comprises endpoint ICs, a miniature radios-on-a-chip that attaches to a host item and includes a number to identify the item. Its platform also consists of systems products that consists of reader ICs, readers, and gateways to wirelessly provide power to and communicate bidirectionally with endpoint ICs on host items, as well as to read, write, authenticate, and engage the endpoint ICs on those items; and software and algorithms that enable its partners to solve enterprise business problems, such as retail self-checkout and loss prevention. The company primarily serves retail, supply chain and logistics, automotive, aviation, banking, datacenters, food, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, linen and uniform tracking, sports, and travel industries through original equipment and device manufacturers, tag service bureaus, systems integrators, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, and other solution partners. Impinj, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor Ltd., an independent semiconductor foundry, focus on specialty process technologies to manufacture analog intensive mixed-signal semiconductor devices in Israel, the United States, Japan, Europe, and internationally. It provides various customizable process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, integrated power management, and MEMS. The Company also provides design enablement platform for quick and accurate design cycle, as well as transfer optimization and development process services to integrated device manufacturers and fabless companies. It serves various markets, such as consumer electronics, personal computers, communications, automotive, industrial, aerospace, military, and medical device products. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Migdal Haemek, Israel.