Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB – Get Free Report) and Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ:MPWR – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.
Profitability
This table compares Photronics and Monolithic Power Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Photronics | 19.05% | 7.45% | 6.53% |
| Monolithic Power Systems | 23.85% | 25.23% | 20.80% |
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Photronics and Monolithic Power Systems, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Photronics | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2.83 |
| Monolithic Power Systems | 0 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 3.00 |
Photronics currently has a consensus target price of $49.33, indicating a potential upside of 80.31%. Monolithic Power Systems has a consensus target price of $1,783.77, indicating a potential upside of 49.84%. Given Photronics’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Photronics is more favorable than Monolithic Power Systems.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Photronics and Monolithic Power Systems”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Photronics | $849.29 million | 1.90 | $136.40 million | $2.84 | 9.63 |
| Monolithic Power Systems | $3.74 billion | 15.53 | $621.48 million | $18.11 | 65.73 |
Monolithic Power Systems has higher revenue and earnings than Photronics. Photronics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Monolithic Power Systems, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
88.4% of Photronics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of Monolithic Power Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of Photronics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Monolithic Power Systems shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Risk & Volatility
Photronics has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Monolithic Power Systems has a beta of 1.71, suggesting that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Monolithic Power Systems beats Photronics on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Photronics
Photronics, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of photomask products and services in the United States, Taiwan, China, Korea, Europe, and internationally. It offers photomasks that are used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and flat panel displays (FPDs); and to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers, and FDP substrates. The company offers electrical and optical components. It sells its products to semiconductor and FPD manufacturers, designers, and foundries, as well as to other high-performance electronics manufacturers through its sales personnel and customer service representatives. The company was formerly known as Photronic Labs, Inc. and changed its name to Photronics, Inc. in 1990. Photronics, Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is based in Brookfield, Connecticut.
About Monolithic Power Systems
Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. engages in the design, development, marketing, and sale of semiconductor-based power electronics solutions for the storage and computing, automotive, enterprise data, consumer, communications, and industrial markets. The company provides direct current (DC) to DC integrated circuits (ICs) that are used to convert and control voltages of various electronic systems, such as cloud-based CPU servers, server artificial intelligence applications, storage applications, commercial notebooks, digital cockpit, power sources, home appliances, 4G and 5G infrastructure, and satellite communications applications. It offers lighting control ICs for backlighting that are used in systems, which provide the light source for LCD panels in computers and notebooks, monitors, car navigation systems, and televisions, as well as for general illumination products. The company sells its products through third-party distributors, value-added resellers, directly to original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers, electronic manufacturing service providers, and other end customers. It serves China, Taiwan, South Korea, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States, and internationally. Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.
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