Head-To-Head Survey: Pixelworks (NASDAQ:PXLW) vs. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Pixelworks (NASDAQ:PXLW) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Pixelworks and Micron Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pixelworks	-50.01%	-93.16%	-30.04%
Micron Technology	13.34%	8.32%	5.49%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

21.4% of Pixelworks shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.8% of Micron Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of Pixelworks shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Micron Technology shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Pixelworks and Micron Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pixelworks	0	0	3	0	3.00
Micron Technology	1	2	23	0	2.85

Pixelworks currently has a consensus price target of $2.17, suggesting a potential upside of 150.54%. Micron Technology has a consensus price target of $135.24, suggesting a potential upside of 48.48%. Given Pixelworks’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Pixelworks is more favorable than Micron Technology.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Pixelworks and Micron Technology”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pixelworks	$54.19 million	0.94	-$26.18 million	($0.47)	-1.84
Micron Technology	$25.11 billion	4.04	$778.00 million	$3.47	26.25

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

Volatility & Risk

Pixelworks has a beta of 1.63, suggesting that its share price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Micron Technology has a beta of 1.18, suggesting that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Micron Technology beats Pixelworks on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pixelworks

Pixelworks, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops and markets semiconductor and software solutions for mobile, home and enterprise, and cinema markets in the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Europe. The company offers imageprocessor integrated circuits, such as embedded microprocessors, digital signal processing technology, and software that control the operations and signal processing within high-end display systems; visual processor integrated circuits that works with a mobile application processor; and transcoder integrated circuits which includes software that control the operations and signal processing for converting multiple bitrates, resolutions and codecs to provide bandwidth efficient video transmissions based on industry standard protocols. It also provides software and platform licensing products comprising Pixelworks Pro Software, a software that enables development and customize the look and feel of mobile products by use of various features, such as absolute color accuracy, HDR tone mapping, SDR-to-HDR conversion, and others; and TrueCut Motion Platform, content creation tool which provides the ability to dial in a motion look on a shot-by-shot basis. The company distributes its products to integrators, branded manufacturers, and branded suppliers. Pixelworks, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Portland, Oregon.

About Micron Technology

Micron Technology, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells memory and storage products worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Compute and Networking Business Unit, Mobile Business Unit, Embedded Business Unit, and Storage Business Unit. It provides memory and storage technologies comprising dynamic random access memory semiconductor devices with low latency that provide high-speed data retrieval; non-volatile and re-writeable semiconductor storage devices; and non-volatile re-writable semiconductor memory devices that provide fast read speeds under the Micron and Crucial brands, as well as through private labels. The company offers memory products for the cloud server, enterprise, client, graphics, networking, industrial, and automotive markets, as well as for smartphone and other mobile-device markets; SSDs and component-level solutions for the enterprise and cloud, client, and consumer storage markets; discrete storage products in component and wafers; and memory and storage products for the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. It markets its products through its direct sales force, independent sales representatives, distributors, and retailers; and web-based customer direct sales channel, as well as through channel and distribution partners. Micron Technology, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.