Analyzing Ceva (NASDAQ:CEVA) & POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET)

POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) and Ceva (NASDAQ:CEVA) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

2.0% of POET Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.4% of Ceva shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Ceva shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares POET Technologies and Ceva”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
POET Technologies	$1.08 million	1,245.46	-$62.96 million	($0.72)	-12.17
Ceva	$109.60 million	10.27	-$10.64 million	($0.45)	-89.82

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

Volatility & Risk

POET Technologies has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ceva has a beta of 1.96, indicating that its share price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares POET Technologies and Ceva’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
POET Technologies	-5,786.60%	-27.24%	-20.63%
Ceva	-10.47%	-3.42%	-2.98%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for POET Technologies and Ceva, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
POET Technologies	1	0	0	0	1.00
Ceva	1	1	9	0	2.73

POET Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $8.00, suggesting a potential downside of 8.68%. Ceva has a consensus target price of $41.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.43%. Given Ceva’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ceva is more favorable than POET Technologies.

Summary

Ceva beats POET Technologies on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About POET Technologies

POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and China. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, optical coherence tomography for medical devices, and virtual reality systems markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About Ceva

CEVA, Inc. provides silicon and software IP solutions to semiconductor and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) companies worldwide. Its 5G mobile and infrastructure products include Ceva-XC vector digital signal processors (DSPs) for 5G handsets, 5G RAN, and general-purpose baseband processing; PentaG-RAN, an open ran platform for base station and radio; and PentaG2 – 5G NR modem platform for UE, as well as for non-handset 5G vertical markets, such as fixed wireless access, industry 4.0, robotics, and AR/VR devices. The company’s wireless IoT products comprise RivieraWaves’ Bluetooth 5dual mode and low energy platforms, RivieraWaves’ Wi-Fi platforms, ultra-wide band platforms, and Cellular IoT and RedCap platforms, as well as sense and inference processors and platforms consist of NeuPro-M neural processing unit (NPU) family; SensPro2 sensor hub AI platforms addressing imaging, vision, powertrain, and applications, including DSP processors, AI accelerators, and a software portfolio; and Ceva-BX1 and Ceva-BX2 audio AI DSPs. Its sensing and audio software comprise RealSpace spatial audio software package; WhisPro speech recognition; ClearVox, a voice front-end software package for voice-enabled devices; and CDNN, a neural network graph compiler that enables AI developers to automatically compile, optimize, and run pre-trained networks onto embedded devices. The company’s application software IP are licensed primarily to OEMs who embed it in their system on chip designs. It delivers AI DSPs and NPUs in the form of a hardware description language definition; and offers development platforms, software development kits, and software debug tools, which facilitate system design, debug, and software development. The company licenses its technology through a direct sales force. CEVA, Inc. was formerly known as ParthusCeva, Inc. and changed its name to CEVA, Inc. in December 2003. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.