SemiLEDs (NASDAQ:LEDS) & STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) Head to Head Review

SemiLEDs (NASDAQ:LEDS) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

SemiLEDs has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, STMicroelectronics has a beta of 1.57, suggesting that its stock price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SemiLEDs and STMicroelectronics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SemiLEDs	$5.31 million	1.90	-$2.69 million	($0.47)	-2.98
STMicroelectronics	$14.23 billion	1.72	$4.21 billion	$2.43	11.17

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for SemiLEDs and STMicroelectronics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SemiLEDs	0	0	0	0	0.00
STMicroelectronics	1	3	7	1	2.67

STMicroelectronics has a consensus target price of $37.63, suggesting a potential upside of 38.61%. Given STMicroelectronics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe STMicroelectronics is more favorable than SemiLEDs.

Profitability

This table compares SemiLEDs and STMicroelectronics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SemiLEDs	-44.37%	-120.86%	-18.80%
STMicroelectronics	16.11%	13.29%	9.19%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.3% of SemiLEDs shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.1% of STMicroelectronics shares are held by institutional investors. 52.1% of SemiLEDs shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

STMicroelectronics beats SemiLEDs on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SemiLEDs

SemiLEDs Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells light emitting diode (LED) chips, LED components, and LED modules and systems in the United States, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, and internationally. The company also sells enhanced vertical, LED product series in blue, white, green, and UV; LED chips to packagers or distributors; and lighting products primarily to original design manufacturers of lighting products and the end-users of lighting devices, as well as packs and sells its LED chips. Its products are used for general lighting applications, including commercial, industrial, and residential lighting; and specialty industrial applications, such as ultraviolet or UV, curing of polymers, LED light therapy in medical/cosmetic applications, counterfeit detection, germicidal and viricidal devices LED lighting for horticulture applications, architectural lighting, and entertainment lighting. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Chu-Nan, Taiwan.

About STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics N.V., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through Automotive and Discrete Group; Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group; and Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group segments. The Automotive and Discrete Group segment offers automotive integrated circuits (ICs), and discrete and power transistor products. The Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group segment provides industrial application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and application-specific standard products (ASSPs); general purpose analog products; custom analog ICs; wireless charging solutions; galvanic isolated gate drivers; low and high voltage amplifiers, comparators, and current-sense amplifiers; MasterGaN, a solution that integrates a silicon driver and GaN power transistors in a single package; wireline and wireless connectivity ICs; touch screen controllers; micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) products, including sensors or actuators; and optical sensing solutions. The Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group segment offers general purpose and secure microcontrollers; and radio frequency (RF) products. It also offers application-specific standard products for analog, digital and mixed-signal applications. In addition, the company provides assembly and other services. It sells its products through distributors and retailers, as well as through sales representatives. The company serves automotive, industrial, personal electronics and communications equipment, and computers and peripherals markets. STMicroelectronics N.V. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.