POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) versus Oxford Instruments (OTCMKTS:OXINF) Critical Contrast

Oxford Instruments (OTCMKTS:OXINF) and POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

2.0% of POET Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Oxford Instruments and POET Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oxford Instruments	0	0	0	0	N/A
POET Technologies	0	0	1	0	3.00

POET Technologies has a consensus price target of $7.50, suggesting a potential upside of 318.99%. Given POET Technologies’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe POET Technologies is more favorable than Oxford Instruments.

Risk & Volatility

Oxford Instruments has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, POET Technologies has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Oxford Instruments and POET Technologies’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oxford Instruments	$536.00 million	3.43	$70.63 million	N/A	N/A
POET Technologies	$293,651.00	371.17	-$20.27 million	($0.49)	-3.65

Oxford Instruments has higher revenue and earnings than POET Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Oxford Instruments and POET Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oxford Instruments	N/A	N/A	N/A
POET Technologies	N/A	-269.59%	-195.01%

About Oxford Instruments

Oxford Instruments plc designs and supplies technology products and services in Europe, North America, Asia, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Materials & Characterisation, Research & Discovery, and Service & Healthcare. The company offers atomic force, electron, and raman microscopy; deposition and etch tools; low temperature systems; optical imaging; nuclear magnetic resonance, modular optical spectroscopy; and x-ray. Its products are used in various industries, such as advanced manufacturing, agriculture and food, astronomy, automotive and aerospace, bio imaging and life science, chemical and catalysis, energy generation and storage, forensics and environment, geology, petrology, mining, metals, alloys, composites, ceramics, pharma, photonics, polymers, quantum technologies, semiconductors, microelectronics, and data storage. Oxford Instruments plc was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Abingdon, the United Kingdom.

About POET Technologies

POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and China. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, optical coherence tomography for medical devices, and virtual reality systems markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.