Financial Comparison: Cepton (NASDAQ:CPTN) versus Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX)

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) and Cepton (NASDAQ:CPTN) are both auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Gentex has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cepton has a beta of 0.06, indicating that its share price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Gentex and Cepton’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gentex	$2.30 billion	3.40	$428.40 million	$1.89	17.88
Cepton	$13.06 million	3.06	-$48.55 million	($2.56)	-0.98

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.8% of Gentex shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.2% of Cepton shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Gentex shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 36.1% of Cepton shares are held by 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.

Profitability

This table compares Gentex and Cepton’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gentex	18.77%	19.19%	16.93%
Cepton	-300.64%	N/A	-47.27%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Gentex and Cepton, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gentex	0	3	3	0	2.50
Cepton	0	2	0	0	2.00

Gentex currently has a consensus target price of $37.83, suggesting a potential upside of 11.93%. Given Gentex’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Gentex is more favorable than Cepton.

Summary

Gentex beats Cepton on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gentex

Gentex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and supplies digital vision, connected car, dimmable glass, and fire protection products in the United States, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, and internationally. It operates through Automotive Products and Other segments. The company offers automotive products, including interior and exterior electrochromic automatic-dimming rearview mirrors, automotive electronics, and non-automatic-dimming rearview mirrors for automotive passenger cars, light trucks, pick-up trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vans for original equipment manufacturers, automotive suppliers, and various aftermarket and accessory customers. It also provides variable dimmable windows to aircraft manufacturers and airline operators. In addition, the company offers photoelectric smoke detectors and alarms, electrochemical carbon monoxide alarms and detectors, audible and visual signaling alarms, and bells and speakers used in fire detection systems in office buildings, hotels, and other commercial and residential buildings, as well as researches and develops nanofiber chemical sensing products. It sells its fire protection products directly, as well as through sales managers and manufacturer representative organizations to fire protection and security product distributors, electrical wholesale houses, and original equipment manufacturers of fire protection systems. Gentex Corporation was incorporated in 1974 and is headquartered in Zeeland, Michigan.

About Cepton

Cepton, Inc. provides lidar-based solutions for automotive, smart cities, smart spaces, and smart industrial applications in the United States, Japan, China, and internationally. The company offers autograde lidar sensors, including Cepton Ultra, a slimmest lidar with MagnoSteer technology and proprietary ASIC chipset, enabling a combination of 300-meter range at 10% reflectivity and 0.05° resolution; Vista-X, a compact lidar solution with a range of up to 200m for long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5, and suitable for smart infrastructure applications; and Nova, an extremely-small form factor lidar solution with a range of up to 30m for near-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5, and suitable for smart infrastructure applications. It also provides industrial grade lidar sensors, such as Vista-P, a compact lidar solution with a range of up to 200m for long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5, and smart infrastructure applications; and Sora-P, an ultra-high scan rate, compact, and quasi line-scanning lidar solution that delivers high-fidelity profiling of objects moving at high speeds for free flow tolling and other industrial applications. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.