Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) & Maxeon Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:MAXN) Critical Analysis

Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) and Maxeon Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:MAXN) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Penguin Solutions and Maxeon Solar Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Penguin Solutions	$1.73 billion	2.12	$25.39 million	$2.59	27.63
Maxeon Solar Technologies	$176.41 million	0.07	-$614.30 million	($163.07)	-0.00

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

47.7% of Maxeon Solar Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Penguin Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Maxeon Solar Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Penguin Solutions and Maxeon Solar Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Penguin Solutions	1	2	6	0	2.56
Maxeon Solar Technologies	1	0	0	0	1.00

Penguin Solutions currently has a consensus target price of $83.33, suggesting a potential upside of 16.44%. Given Penguin Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Penguin Solutions is more favorable than Maxeon Solar Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Penguin Solutions and Maxeon Solar Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Penguin Solutions	10.43%	36.71%	7.95%
Maxeon Solar Technologies	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

Penguin Solutions has a beta of 2.86, indicating that its stock price is 186% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Maxeon Solar Technologies has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Penguin Solutions beats Maxeon Solar Technologies on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Penguin Solutions

Penguin Solutions, Inc. engages in the designing and development of enterprise solutions worldwide. It operates through three segments: Advanced Computing, Integrated Memory, and Optimized LED. It offers dynamic random access memory modules, solid-state and flash storage, and other advanced integrated memory solutions for networking and telecom, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications; and supply chain services, including procurement, logistics, inventory management, temporary warehousing, programming, kitting, and packaging services. The company also provides Penguin Computing that focus on technical computing for core and cloud environments through high-performance computing and AI solutions; and Penguin Edge, an edge computing solution for embedded and wireless applications, such as high-performance products for government, health care, manufacturing, and telecommunications applications. In addition, it offers Stratus, which provides simplified, protected, and autonomous fault tolerant computing solutions in the data center and at the Edge through hardware and software services; and solutions to education, energy, financial services, government, hyperscale, and manufacturing markets. Further, the company provides LED chip products comprising blue and green LED chips based on gallium nitride, and related materials under Cree LED brand; and surface mount devices under the Cree LED XLamp and J Series brands. It sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, enterprise, government and other end customers through direct sales force, e-commerce, customer service representatives, on-site field application engineers, independent sales representatives, distributors, integrators, and resellers. The company was formerly known as SMART Global Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Penguin Solutions, Inc. in October 2024. Penguin Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

About Maxeon Solar Technologies

Maxeon Solar Technologies, Ltd. designs, manufactures, markets, and sells solar panels and related solar system components worldwide. The company provides interdigitated back contact and shingled solar cells and panels under the SunPower brand. It offers its products to dealers, project developers, system integrators, distributors, resellers, and residential and small-scale commercial customers. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in Singapore.