Comparing Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) and Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) and Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Silicon Motion Technology and Kulicke and Soffa Industries”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Silicon Motion Technology	$814.77 million	2.22	$52.87 million	$2.64	20.32
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	$706.23 million	3.75	-$69.01 million	($1.23)	-39.98

Silicon Motion Technology has higher revenue and earnings than Kulicke and Soffa Industries. Kulicke and Soffa Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Silicon Motion Technology, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Silicon Motion Technology has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a beta of 1.38, meaning that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Silicon Motion Technology and Kulicke and Soffa Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Silicon Motion Technology	1	0	8	0	2.78
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	0	2	3	0	2.60

Silicon Motion Technology presently has a consensus price target of $81.67, suggesting a potential upside of 52.25%. Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a consensus price target of $52.40, suggesting a potential upside of 6.57%. Given Silicon Motion Technology’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Silicon Motion Technology is more favorable than Kulicke and Soffa Industries.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.0% of Silicon Motion Technology shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.2% of Kulicke and Soffa Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 5.3% of Silicon Motion Technology shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Kulicke and Soffa Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Silicon Motion Technology and Kulicke and Soffa Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Silicon Motion Technology	10.90%	11.52%	8.64%
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	-9.77%	-0.92%	-0.71%

Dividends

Silicon Motion Technology pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Kulicke and Soffa Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.82 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Silicon Motion Technology pays out 75.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kulicke and Soffa Industries pays out -66.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Silicon Motion Technology beats Kulicke and Soffa Industries on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Silicon Motion Technology

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices. The company offers controllers for computing-grade solid state drives (SSDs), which are used in PCs and other client devices; enterprise-grade SSDs used in data centers; eMMC and UFS mobile embedded storage for use in smartphones and IoT devices; flash memory cards and flash drives for use in expandable storage; and specialized SSDs that are used in industrial, commercial, and automotive applications. It markets its controllers under the SMI brand; enterprise-grade SSDs under the Shannon Systems brand; and single-chip industrial-grade SSDs under the FerriSSD, Ferri-eMMC, and Ferri-UFS brands. The company markets and sells its products through direct sales personnel and independent electronics distributors to NAND flash makers, module makers, hyperscalers, and OEMs. It operates in Taiwan, the United States, Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and internationally. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

About Kulicke and Soffa Industries

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells capital equipment and tools used to assemble semiconductor devices. It operates through four segments: Ball Bonding Equipment, Wedge Bonding Equipment, Advanced Solutions, and Aftermarket Products and Services (APS). The company offers ball bonding equipment, wafer level bonding equipment, wedge bonding equipment; and advanced display, die-attach, and thermocompression systems and solutions, as well as tools, spares and services for equipment. It also services, maintains, repairs, and upgrades equipment. The company serves semiconductor device manufacturers, integrated device manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers, other electronics manufacturers, industrial manufacturers, foundry service providers, and automotive electronics suppliers primarily in the United States and the Asia/Pacific region. The company was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.