Head to Head Review: Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) versus Flywire (NASDAQ:FLYW)

Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) and Flywire (NASDAQ:FLYW) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Penguin Solutions and Flywire, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Penguin Solutions	0	2	7	1	2.90
Flywire	1	9	5	0	2.27

Penguin Solutions currently has a consensus price target of $27.13, indicating a potential upside of 3.53%. Flywire has a consensus price target of $13.54, indicating a potential downside of 0.58%. Given Penguin Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Penguin Solutions is more favorable than Flywire.

Profitability

This table compares Penguin Solutions and Flywire’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Penguin Solutions	-0.68%	13.27%	4.01%
Flywire	1.27%	1.94%	1.38%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.9% of Flywire shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Penguin Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of Flywire shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Penguin Solutions and Flywire”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Penguin Solutions	$1.34 billion	1.02	-$52.47 million	($0.28)	-93.57
Flywire	$492.14 million	3.38	$2.90 million	$0.05	272.40

Flywire has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Penguin Solutions. Penguin Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Flywire, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Penguin Solutions has a beta of 2.13, indicating that its stock price is 113% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flywire has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Penguin Solutions beats Flywire on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Penguin Solutions

Penguin Solutions, Inc. engages in the designing and development of enterprise solutions worldwide. It operates through three segments: Advanced Computing, Integrated Memory, and Optimized LED. It offers dynamic random access memory modules, solid-state and flash storage, and other advanced integrated memory solutions for networking and telecom, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications; and supply chain services, including procurement, logistics, inventory management, temporary warehousing, programming, kitting, and packaging services. The company also provides Penguin Computing that focus on technical computing for core and cloud environments through high-performance computing and AI solutions; and Penguin Edge, an edge computing solution for embedded and wireless applications, such as high-performance products for government, health care, manufacturing, and telecommunications applications. In addition, it offers Stratus, which provides simplified, protected, and autonomous fault tolerant computing solutions in the data center and at the Edge through hardware and software services; and solutions to education, energy, financial services, government, hyperscale, and manufacturing markets. Further, the company provides LED chip products comprising blue and green LED chips based on gallium nitride, and related materials under Cree LED brand; and surface mount devices under the Cree LED XLamp and J Series brands. It sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, enterprise, government and other end customers through direct sales force, e-commerce, customer service representatives, on-site field application engineers, independent sales representatives, distributors, integrators, and resellers. The company was formerly known as SMART Global Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Penguin Solutions, Inc. in October 2024. Penguin Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

About Flywire

Flywire Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a payments enablement and software company in the United States and internationally. Its payment platform and network, and vertical-specific software help clients to get paid and help their customers to pay. The company’s platform facilitates payment flows across multiple currencies, payment types, and payment options, as well as provides direct connections to alternative payment methods, such as Alipay, Boleto, PayPal/Venmo, and Trustly. It serves education, healthcare, travel, and business to business organizations. The company was formerly known as peerTransfer Corporation and changed its name to Flywire Corporation in December 2016. Flywire Corporation was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.