Financial Contrast: LightPath Technologies (NASDAQ:LPTH) and Microwave Filter (OTCMKTS:MFCO)

LightPath Technologies (NASDAQ:LPTH) and Microwave Filter (OTCMKTS:MFCO) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for LightPath Technologies and Microwave Filter, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LightPath Technologies	1	1	4	1	2.71
Microwave Filter	0	0	0	0	0.00

LightPath Technologies presently has a consensus price target of $12.10, indicating a potential upside of 5.31%. Given LightPath Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe LightPath Technologies is more favorable than Microwave Filter.

Risk and Volatility

LightPath Technologies has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Microwave Filter has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its stock price is 64% less 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 insiders. Comparatively, 6.9% of Microwave Filter shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares LightPath Technologies and Microwave Filter”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LightPath Technologies	$37.20 million	17.82	-$14.87 million	($0.52)	-22.10
Microwave Filter	$2.18 million	0.83	-$260,000.00	N/A	N/A

Microwave Filter has lower revenue, but higher earnings than LightPath Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares LightPath Technologies and Microwave Filter’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LightPath Technologies	-43.41%	-32.64%	-10.70%
Microwave Filter	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

LightPath Technologies beats Microwave Filter on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Microwave Filter

Microwave Filter Company, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells electronic filters for radio and microwave frequencies primarily in the United States. It manufactures RF filters and related components for eliminating interference and facilitating signal processing for cable television, broadcast, commercial and military communications, avionics, radar, navigation, and defense markets. The company also designs waveguide, stripline/microstrip, transmission line, miniature/subminiature, and lumped constant filters. Its configurations include bandpass, highpass, lowpass, bandstop, multiplexers, tunable notch, tunable bandpass, high power filters, amplitude equalized, delay equalized, and filter networks. The company serves 5G, cable television, television and radio broadcast, satellite broadcast, mobile radio, commercial, and aerospace and defense electronics markets. Microwave Filter Company, Inc. was incorporated in 1967 and is based in East Syracuse, New York.