Financial Comparison: ParkerVision (OTCMKTS:PRKR) and Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX)

ParkerVision (OTCMKTS:PRKR) and Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

10.3% of ParkerVision shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.4% of Lantronix shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.2% of ParkerVision shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Lantronix shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

ParkerVision has a beta of 2.42, meaning that its share price is 142% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lantronix has a beta of 1.7, meaning that its share price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ParkerVision and Lantronix”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ParkerVision	$25.00 million	0.77	-$7.43 million	($0.03)	-4.32
Lantronix	$120.90 million	1.95	-$11.37 million	($0.11)	-48.82

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for ParkerVision and Lantronix, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ParkerVision	0	0	0	0	0.00
Lantronix	1	0	6	0	2.71

Lantronix has a consensus price target of $10.40, suggesting a potential upside of 93.67%. Given Lantronix’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Lantronix is more favorable than ParkerVision.

Profitability

This table compares ParkerVision and Lantronix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ParkerVision	N/A	N/A	-88.12%
Lantronix	-3.46%	-5.62%	-3.47%

About ParkerVision

ParkerVision, Inc. designs and develops radio frequency technologies and integrated circuits for use in wireless communication products. ParkerVision, Inc. was incorporated in 1989 and is based in Jacksonville, Florida.

About Lantronix

Lantronix, Inc. provides solutions for video surveillance, infotainment systems, and intelligent substations infrastructure in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific Japan. The company's IoT products include IoT System Solutions, which provide wired and wireless connections that enhance the value and utility of modern electronic systems and equipment through secure network connectivity, power for IoT end devices through Power over Ethernet, application hosting, protocol conversion, media conversion, secure access for distributed IoT deployments, and various other functions; Embedded IoT Modules, such as application processing delivering compute to meet customer needs for data transformation, computer vision, machine learning, augmented/virtual reality, audio/video aggregation and distribution, and custom applications; and Software and Engineering Services offers SaaS platform that enables customers to deploy, monitor, manage, and automate across their global deployments through a single platform login. It also offers telematics devices, which provides power efficient products designed to support communications across interfaces and industrial protocols for vehicle, fleet, and asset tracking and management; network switches, media converters, power over ethernet, NICS and optical SFPs, system on modules, and development kits; and services for mechanical, hardware, and software engineering for camera, audio, and artificial intelligence/machine learning development. In addition, the company provides console management, power management, and IP connected keyboard-video-mouse products that offers remote access to IT and networking infrastructure deployed in test labs, data centers, branch offices, remote sites, and server rooms; and hardware engineering, software engineering, and mechanical engineering, rapid prototyping and quality assurance engineering services. Lantronix, Inc. was incorporated in 1989 and is based in Irvine, California.