Head to Head Contrast: POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) and Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX)

POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) and Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

This table compares POET Technologies and Lam Research’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
POET Technologies	-6,625.16%	-103.46%	-52.64%
Lam Research	30.22%	62.81%	29.48%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

2.0% of POET Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.6% of Lam Research shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Lam Research shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares POET Technologies and Lam Research”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
POET Technologies	$762,695.00	1,038.60	-$56.70 million	($0.72)	-8.33
Lam Research	$20.56 billion	14.21	$5.36 billion	$4.88	47.93

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

Volatility & Risk

POET Technologies has a beta of 0.37, indicating that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lam Research has a beta of 1.78, indicating that its share price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for POET Technologies and Lam Research, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
POET Technologies	1	0	0	0	1.00
Lam Research	0	6	28	1	2.86

POET Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.33%. Lam Research has a consensus price target of $245.19, suggesting a potential upside of 4.83%. Given POET Technologies’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe POET Technologies is more favorable than Lam Research.

Summary

Lam Research beats POET Technologies on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About POET Technologies

POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and China. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, optical coherence tomography for medical devices, and virtual reality systems markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About Lam Research

Lam Research Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers ALTUS systems to deposit conformal films for tungsten metallization applications; SABRE electrochemical deposition products for copper interconnect transition that offers copper damascene manufacturing; SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing products for film treatments; and VECTOR plasma-enhanced CVD ALD products. It also provides SPEED gapfill high-density plasma chemical vapor deposition products; and Striker single-wafer atomic layer deposition products for dielectric film solutions. In addition, the company offers Flex for dielectric etch applications; Kiyo for conductor etch applications; Syndion for through-silicon via etch applications; and Versys metal products for metal etch processes. Further, it provides Coronus bevel clean products to enhance die yield; Da Vinci, DV-Prime, EOS, and SP series products to address various wafer cleaning applications; and Metryx mass metrology systems for high precision in-line mass measurement in semiconductor wafer manufacturing. The company sells its products and services to semiconductors industry in the United States, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and internationally. The company was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.