Head-To-Head Contrast: Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.8% of Micron Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.8% of Impinj shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Micron Technology shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Impinj and Micron Technology”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Impinj	$361.08 million	15.09	-$10.85 million	($0.92)	-193.83
Micron Technology	$37.38 billion	31.99	$8.54 billion	$44.17	23.97

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

Risk and Volatility

Impinj has a beta of 1.92, suggesting that its stock price is 92% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Micron Technology has a beta of 2.22, suggesting that its stock price is 122% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Impinj	-7.26%	5.23%	2.09%
Micron Technology	55.91%	71.13%	50.33%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Impinj and Micron Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Impinj	1	3	7	0	2.55
Micron Technology	0	5	39	1	2.91

Impinj currently has a consensus price target of $183.30, indicating a potential upside of 2.79%. Micron Technology has a consensus price target of $1,348.03, indicating a potential upside of 27.32%. Given Micron Technology’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Micron Technology is more favorable than Impinj.

Summary

Micron Technology beats Impinj on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Impinj

Impinj, Inc. operates a cloud connectivity platform in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its platform wirelessly connects items and delivers data about the connected items to business and consumer applications. The company’s platform comprises endpoint ICs, a miniature radios-on-a-chip that attaches to a host item and includes a number to identify the item. Its platform also consists of systems products that consists of reader ICs, readers, and gateways to wirelessly provide power to and communicate bidirectionally with endpoint ICs on host items, as well as to read, write, authenticate, and engage the endpoint ICs on those items; and software and algorithms that enable its partners to solve enterprise business problems, such as retail self-checkout and loss prevention. The company primarily serves retail, supply chain and logistics, automotive, aviation, banking, datacenters, food, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, linen and uniform tracking, sports, and travel industries through original equipment and device manufacturers, tag service bureaus, systems integrators, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, and other solution partners. Impinj, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

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.