Contrasting Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) and LightPath Technologies (NASDAQ:LPTH)

Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) and LightPath Technologies (NASDAQ:LPTH) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

Yaskawa Electric has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LightPath Technologies has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

56.3% of LightPath Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 24.8% of LightPath Technologies shares are owned 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and LightPath Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Yaskawa Electric	$3.53 billion	2.01	$376.12 million	$1.91	28.58
LightPath Technologies	$37.20 million	17.00	-$14.87 million	($0.52)	-21.08

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Yaskawa Electric and LightPath Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yaskawa Electric	0	1	2	2	3.20
LightPath Technologies	1	1	4	1	2.71

LightPath Technologies has a consensus price target of $12.10, suggesting a potential upside of 10.40%. Given LightPath Technologies’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe LightPath Technologies is more favorable than Yaskawa Electric.

Profitability

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and LightPath Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yaskawa Electric	6.86%	8.18%	4.83%
LightPath Technologies	-43.41%	-32.64%	-10.70%

Summary

Yaskawa Electric beats LightPath Technologies on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Yaskawa Electric

YASKAWA Electric Corporation engages in motion control, robotics, system engineering, and other businesses worldwide. It manufactures and sells various AC drives, including general purpose AC drives, specific purpose AC drives, AC Drive for systems, regenerative energy saving units, and PM motors for use in household appliances, such as air conditioners and refrigerators; social infrastructures comprising elevators, escalators, trains, cranes, fans, and pumps; and factories that manufacture printing machinery, textile machinery, rubber machinery, and other materials. The company also offers rotary servo motors, direct drive servo motors, linear motors/linear sliders, machine controllers, positioning sensor encoders, and servo amplifiers for use in industrial robots, semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, machine tools, flat panel display manufacturing equipment, and metal working machines; and arc and spot welding, handling/assembling, collaborative, biomedical, palletizing, press handling, sealing/cutting/laser machining, deburring, painting, glass substrates transfer, and semiconductor wafer transfer robots for use in semiconductor wafer conveyance, arc welding, spot welding, handling, assembly, and palletizing applications. In addition, it provides industrial system electrical products, such as medium-voltage AC drives, system use AC drives, and system controllers for use in iron and steel systems, water and wastewater treatment, crane, and paper-making/film/port cargo handling/fiber/printing applications. Further, the company offers equipment for energy saving and creation comprising PV inverters, systems for large wind turbines, control equipment for small-scale power generation, and motor drive systems for use in photovoltaic power generation, large-scale wind power generation, small-scale power generation, and electric vehicles. The company was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Kitakyushu, Japan.

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.