Financial Survey: LightPath Technologies (LPTH) and Its Rivals

LightPath Technologies (NASDAQ:LPTH) is one of 377 public companies in the “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare LightPath Technologies to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

LightPath Technologies has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LightPath Technologies’ competitors have a beta of -0.29, indicating that their average share price is 129% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares LightPath Technologies and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LightPath Technologies	-28.65%	-7.02%	-4.13%
LightPath Technologies Competitors	-158.14%	-25.87%	-6.85%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LightPath Technologies and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
LightPath Technologies	$71.72 million	-$20.55 million	-17.65
LightPath Technologies Competitors	$4.00 billion	$172.92 million	4.90

LightPath Technologies’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than LightPath Technologies. LightPath Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

56.3% of LightPath Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.2% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are held by institutional investors. 24.8% of LightPath Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.4% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for LightPath Technologies and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LightPath Technologies	1	0	4	1	2.83
LightPath Technologies Competitors	2049	7612	10445	662	2.47

LightPath Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $13.70, indicating a potential upside of 94.05%. As a group, “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies have a potential upside of 41.19%. Given LightPath Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe LightPath Technologies is more favorable than its competitors.

Summary

LightPath Technologies beats its competitors on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

About LightPath Technologies

LightPath Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes optical components and assemblies. The company offers precision molded glass aspheric optics, molded and diamond-turned infrared aspheric lenses, and other optical components used to produce products that manipulate light; and infrared products, including catalog and custom infrared optics. Its products are used in defense products, medical devices, laser aided industrial tools, automotive safety applications, barcode scanners, optical data storage, hybrid fiber coax datacom, telecommunications, machine vision and sensors, and other sectors. The company sells its products directly to customers in Europe and Asia. LightPath Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.