Reviewing American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) & Eltek (NASDAQ:ELTK)

American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) and Eltek (NASDAQ:ELTK) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for American Superconductor and Eltek, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Superconductor	0	2	1	0	2.33
Eltek	0	1	0	0	2.00

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.3% of American Superconductor shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.6% of Eltek shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.8% of American Superconductor shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 72.0% of Eltek shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Superconductor	$222.82 million	6.20	$6.03 million	$2.93	9.91
Eltek	$46.53 million	1.31	$4.22 million	$0.17	53.35

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

Profitability

This table compares American Superconductor and Eltek’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Superconductor	46.70%	37.97%	27.75%
Eltek	2.35%	2.68%	1.85%

Volatility and Risk

American Superconductor has a beta of 2.97, meaning that its share price is 197% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eltek has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

American Superconductor beats Eltek on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Eltek

Eltek Ltd. manufactures, markets, and sells printed circuit boards (PCBs) in Israel, Europe, North America, India, the Netherlands, and internationally. It offers a range of custom designed PCBs, including rigid, double-sided and multi-layer PCBs, and flexible circuitry boards. The company also provides high density interconnect, flex-rigid, and multi-layered boards. It primarily serves medical technology, defense and aerospace, industrial, telecom, and networking equipment industries, as well as contract electronic manufacturers. The company markets and sells its products primarily through direct sales personnel, sales representatives, and PCB trading and manufacturing companies. Eltek Ltd. was incorporated in 1970 and is headquartered in Petah Tikva, Israel. Eltek Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Nistec Golan Ltd.