Comparing ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) & Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG)

ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) and Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) are both mid-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ACM Research and Penguin Solutions”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ACM Research	$901.31 million	3.63	$94.08 million	$2.10	24.07
Penguin Solutions	$1.73 billion	1.86	$180.62 million	$2.59	20.62

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

66.7% of ACM Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 24.4% of ACM Research shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Penguin Solutions shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

ACM Research has a beta of 2.09, suggesting that its share price is 109% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Penguin Solutions has a beta of 2.86, suggesting that its share price is 186% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for ACM Research and Penguin Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ACM Research	0	1	5	0	2.83
Penguin Solutions	1	1	7	1	2.80

ACM Research currently has a consensus price target of $122.75, indicating a potential upside of 142.83%. Penguin Solutions has a consensus price target of $87.50, indicating a potential upside of 63.83%. Given ACM Research’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe ACM Research is more favorable than Penguin Solutions.

Profitability

This table compares ACM Research and Penguin Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ACM Research	14.48%	4.08%	2.80%
Penguin Solutions	10.43%	36.71%	7.95%

Summary

Penguin Solutions beats ACM Research on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ACM Research

ACM Research, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells single-wafer wet cleaning equipment for enhancing the manufacturing process and yield for integrated chips worldwide. It offers space alternated phase shift technology for flat and patterned wafer surfaces, which employs alternating phases of megasonic waves to deliver megasonic energy in a uniform manner on a microscopic level; timely energized bubble oscillation technology for patterned wafer surfaces at advanced process nodes, which provides cleaning for 2D and 3D patterned wafers; Tahoe technology for delivering cleaning performance using less sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide; and electro-chemical plating technology for advanced metal plating. The company markets and sells its products under the SAPS, TEBO, ULTRA C, ULTRA Fn, Ultra ECP, Ultra ECP map, and Ultra ECP ap trademarks through direct sales force and third-party representatives. ACM Research, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

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.