Comparing inTEST (NYSE:INTT) & Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)

inTEST (NYSE:INTT) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

63.2% of inTEST shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.4% of Broadcom shares are held by institutional investors. 5.2% of inTEST shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Broadcom shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for inTEST and Broadcom, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
inTEST	0	1	2	0	2.67
Broadcom	0	3	37	1	2.95

inTEST presently has a consensus price target of $17.00, indicating a potential upside of 38.21%. Broadcom has a consensus price target of $527.20, indicating a potential upside of 48.45%. Given Broadcom’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Broadcom is more favorable than inTEST.

Profitability

This table compares inTEST and Broadcom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
inTEST	2.33%	5.31%	3.42%
Broadcom	42.94%	48.33%	23.78%

Volatility and Risk

inTEST has a beta of 1.52, indicating that its stock price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Broadcom has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares inTEST and Broadcom”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
inTEST	$128.26 million	1.23	$9.34 million	$0.12	102.50
Broadcom	$63.89 billion	26.54	$23.13 billion	$7.83	45.36

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

Summary

Broadcom beats inTEST on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About inTEST

inTEST Corporation provides test and process technology solutions for use in manufacturing and testing in automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences, security, and semiconductor markets worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Electronic Test, Environmental Technologies, and Process Technologies. The Electronic Test segment offers in2, Cobal, and LS series manipulators that hold various test heads and enable an operator to reposition a test head for alternate use with various probers or handlers on a test floor; and docking hardware products, which protect the interface contacts and ensure proper repeatable and precise alignment between the test head’s interface board and the prober’s probing assembly. This segment also provides tester interfaces that offer electrical connections between the tester and the wafer prober or IC handler; scorpion flying probe test systems that designs and manufactures robotics-based electronic test equipment; and BRiZ automated test and programming services. Its products are used in production testing of wafers and specialized packaged ICs in back-end testing by semiconductor manufacturers. The Environmental Technologies segment provides ThermoStream products that are used in the semi market as a stand-alone temperature management tool, or in various electronic test applications; thermal chambers; thermal platforms; Thermonics temperature conditioning products that offer tempered gas or fluid; and ultra-cold storage solutions, including biomedical freezers, refrigerators, and mobile storage solutions. The Process Technologies segment offers EKOHEAT and EASYHEAT induction heating systems; and digital streaming and image capturing solutions. The company markets and sells its products to semiconductor manufacturers, third-party foundries, test and assembly providers, and original equipment manufacturers. inTEST Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Inc. designs, develops, and supplies various semiconductor devices with a focus on complex digital and mixed signal complementary metal oxide semiconductor based devices and analog III-V based products worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Semiconductor Solutions and Infrastructure Software. It provides set-top box system-on-chips (SoCs); cable, digital subscriber line, and passive optical networking central office/consumer premise equipment SoCs; wireless local area network access point SoCs; Ethernet switching and routing custom silicon solutions; serializer/deserializer application specific integrated circuits; optical and copper, and physical layer devices; and fiber optic components and RF semiconductor devices. The company also offers RF front end modules and filter; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and global positioning system/global navigation satellite system SoCs; custom touch controllers; inductive charging; attached small computer system interface, and redundant array of independent disks controllers and adapters; peripheral component interconnect express; fiber channel host bus adapters; read channel based SoCs; custom flash controllers; preamplifiers; optocouplers, industrial fiber optics, and motion control encoders and subsystems; light emitting diode, ethernet PHYs, switch ICs, and camera microcontrollers. Its products are used in various applications, including enterprise and data center networking, home connectivity, set-top boxes, broadband access, telecommunication equipment, smartphones and base stations, data center servers and storage systems, factory automation, power generation and alternative energy systems, and electronic displays. Broadcom Inc. was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.