Critical Comparison: Seiko Epson (SEKEY) and Its Competitors

Seiko Epson (OTCMKTS:SEKEY) is one of 82 public companies in the “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Seiko Epson to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Seiko Epson and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seiko Epson	0	1	0	0	2.00
Seiko Epson Competitors	1116	4396	7812	380	2.54

As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies have a potential upside of 69.40%. Given Seiko Epson’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Seiko Epson has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Volatility & Risk

Seiko Epson has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seiko Epson’s peers have a beta of 1.75, meaning that their average stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

51.6% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 11.0% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Seiko Epson pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Seiko Epson pays out 31.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 27.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Seiko Epson lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Seiko Epson and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seiko Epson	3.12%	5.17%	2.87%
Seiko Epson Competitors	-92.28%	-31.01%	7.88%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Seiko Epson and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seiko Epson	$9.39 billion	$113.84 million	19.47
Seiko Epson Competitors	$26.34 billion	$4.16 billion	1.80

Seiko Epson’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Seiko Epson. Seiko Epson is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Seiko Epson peers beat Seiko Epson on 12 of the 15 factors compared.

About Seiko Epson

Seiko Epson Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, sells, and provides services for products in the printing solutions, visual communications, manufacturing-related and wearables, and other businesses. It operates through three segments: Printing Solutions, Visual Communications, and Manufacturing-related and Wearables segments. The Printing Solutions segment offers home and office inkjet printers, serial impact dot matrix printers, page printers, color image scanners, dry process office papermaking systems, commercial and industrial inkjet printers, inkjet printheads, printers for use in POS systems, label printers, printer consumables, and others. The Visual Communications segment provides 3LCD projectors for business, education, the home, and event; smart glasses; and others. The Manufacturing-related and Wearables segment offers wristwatches, watch movements, and others; factory automation products, industrial robots, compact injection molders, and other production systems; and crystal units, crystal oscillators, quartz sensors, and others for consumer, automotive, and industrial equipment applications. This segment also provides CMOS LSIs and other chips primarily for consumer electronics and automotive applications; and metal powders for use as raw materials in the production of electronic components, etc., as well as value-added surface finishing in a range of industrial fields. The company also sells PCs, etc. It has operations in Japan, the Philippines, the United States, Indonesia, China, and internationally. Seiko Epson Corporation was incorporated in 1942 and is headquartered in Suwa, Japan.