Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) & American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) Critical Survey

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

52.3% of American Superconductor shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of American Superconductor shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Yaskawa Electric has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, American Superconductor has a beta of 2.98, meaning that its stock price is 198% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and American Superconductor”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Yaskawa Electric	$3.53 billion	2.10	$376.12 million	$1.91	29.88
American Superconductor	$222.82 million	6.53	$6.03 million	$2.93	10.43

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

Profitability

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and American Superconductor’s 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%
American Superconductor	46.70%	37.97%	27.75%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Yaskawa Electric and American Superconductor, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yaskawa Electric	0	1	2	2	3.20
American Superconductor	0	2	1	0	2.33

Summary

American Superconductor beats Yaskawa Electric on 8 of the 14 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 American Superconductor

American Superconductor Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides megawatt-scale power resiliency solutions worldwide. The company operates through Grid and Wind segments. The Grid segment offers products and services that enable electric utilities, industrial facilities, and renewable energy project developers to connect, transmit, and distribute power under the Gridtec Solutions brand. It provides transmission planning services, which identify power grid congestion, poor power quality, and other risks; grid interconnection solutions for wind farms and solar power plants, power quality systems, and transmission and distribution cable systems; D-VAR systems used for controlling power flow and voltage in the AC transmission system; actiVAR system, a fast-switching medium-voltage reactive compensation solution; armorVAR system installed for reactive compensation, power factor correction, loss reduction, utility bill savings, and mitigation of common power quality concerns related to power converter-based generation and load devices; and D-VAR volt var optimization (VVO) that serves the distribution power grid market. This segment also offers ship protection systems, which reduce a naval ship’s magnetic signature; and ON board power delivery systems, power generation systems, and propulsion systems; and transformers and rectifiers systems. The Wind segment designs wind turbine systems and licenses these designs to third parties under the Windtec Solutions brand. It also supplies power electronics and software-based control systems, engineered designs, and support services; and provides customer support services to wind turbine manufacturers. This segment’s design portfolio comprises a range of drivetrains and power ratings of 2 megawatts and higher. American Superconductor Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Ayer, Massachusetts.