Ceva (NASDAQ:CEVA) versus NVE (NASDAQ:NVEC) Critical Survey

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for NVE and Ceva, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NVE	0	1	0	0	2.00
Ceva	1	0	4	0	2.60

Ceva has a consensus target price of $34.00, indicating a potential upside of 54.76%. Given Ceva’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ceva is more favorable than NVE.

Risk and Volatility

NVE has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ceva has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NVE	55.79%	22.48%	21.78%
Ceva	-10.49%	-3.54%	-3.08%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

66.0% of NVE shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.4% of Ceva shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of NVE shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Ceva shares are held 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares NVE and Ceva”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NVE	$25.88 million	11.92	$15.06 million	$2.85	22.36
Ceva	$106.94 million	4.93	-$8.79 million	($0.46)	-47.76

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

About NVE

NVE Corporation develops and sells devices that use spintronics, a nanotechnology that relies on electron spin to acquire, store, and transmit information in the United States and internationally. The company manufactures spintronic products, including sensors and couplers for use in acquiring and transmitting data. Its products comprise standard sensors to detect the presence of a magnetic or metallic material to determine position, rotation, or speed for the factory automation market; and custom and medical sensors for medical devices to replace electromechanical magnetic switches. The company also offers spintronic couplers for power conversion and industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market; and DC-to-DC convertors for use in power conversion systems and industrial networks for the IIoT. In addition, it undertakes contracts for research and development, and licensing of spintronic magnetoresistive random access memory technology. NVE Corporation was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

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.