Comparing Soitec (OTCMKTS:SLOIF) & AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI)

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) and Soitec (OTCMKTS:SLOIF) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for AXT and Soitec, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AXT	1	2	2	0	2.20
Soitec	1	0	0	0	1.00

AXT presently has a consensus price target of $22.80, suggesting a potential downside of 66.12%. Given AXT’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AXT is more favorable than Soitec.

Volatility and Risk

AXT has a beta of 1.51, indicating that its stock price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Soitec has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

49.5% of AXT shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.0% of AXT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares AXT and Soitec”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AXT	$88.33 million	42.35	-$21.26 million	($0.48)	-140.21
Soitec	$937.30 million	3.34	$98.66 million	N/A	N/A

Soitec has higher revenue and earnings than AXT.

Profitability

This table compares AXT and Soitec’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AXT	-24.07%	-9.50%	-5.95%
Soitec	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

AXT beats Soitec on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AXT

AXT, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes compound and single element semiconductor substrates. The company offers indium phosphide for use in data center connectivity using light/lasers, high-speed data transfer in data centers, 5G communications, fiber optic lasers and detectors, consumer devices, passive optical networks, silicon photonics, photonic integrated circuits, thermo-photovoltaics, RF amplifier and switching, infrared light-emitting diode (LEDS) motion control, lidar for robotics and autonomous vehicles, and infrared thermal imaging. It also provides semi-insulating gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrates for use in Wi-Fi and IoT devices, transistors, direct broadcast television, power amplifiers, satellite communications, and solar cells; and semi-conducting GaAs substrates that are used in LEDs, screen displays using micro-LEDs, printer head lasers and LEDs, 3-D sensing using VCSELs, data center communication using VCSELs, sensors for industrial robotics/near-infrared sensors, optical couplers, solar cells, night vision goggles, lidar for robotics and autonomous vehicles, and other lasers, as well as laser machining, cutting, and drilling. In addition, the company offers germanium substrates for use in multi-junction solar cells for satellites, optical sensors and detectors, terrestrial concentrated photo voltaic cells, infrared detectors, and carrier wafer for LED. Further, it provides 6N+ and 7N+ purified gallium, boron trioxide, gallium-magnesium alloy, pyrolytic boron nitride (pBN) crucibles, and pBN insulating parts. It sells its products through direct salesforce in the United States, China, and Europe, as well as through independent sales representatives and distributors in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and internationally. The company was formerly known as American Xtal Technology, Inc. and changed its name to AXT, Inc. in July 2000. AXT, Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

About Soitec

Soitec SA designs and manufactures semiconductor materials worldwide. Its products are used to manufacture chips that are used in smart phones, tablets, computers, IT servers, and data centers, as well as electronic components in cars, connected devices, and industrial and medical equipment. It provides CONNECT Radio Frequency Silicon-on-Insulator (RF-SOI) for smartphone front-end modules; CONNECT Piezoelectric-on-Insulator RF filters for smartphone; and CONNECT RF gallium nitride for 5g infrastructure base stations and smartphones, as well as CONNECT Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI). The company also offers Auto Power-SOI product for automotive and industrial markets; Auto Smartsic for green mobility; and AUTO POWER-allium nitride for power efficiency, as well as AUTO FD-SOI for automotive radar and processors. In addition, it provides Smart photonics-SOI products for optical networking; Smart Imager-SOI products for next generation 3D image sensing; Smart FD-SOI for ultra low power, energy efficient, and body biasing; smart partially depleted (PD) -SOI for high-performance computing markets. Soitec SA was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Bernin, France.