Analyzing Ascent Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:ASTI) and GCT Semiconductor (NYSE:GCTS)

Ascent Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:ASTI) and GCT Semiconductor (NYSE:GCTS) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Ascent Solar Technologies and GCT Semiconductor, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ascent Solar Technologies	1	1	1	0	2.00
GCT Semiconductor	1	0	2	0	2.33

Ascent Solar Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $20.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1,069.59%. GCT Semiconductor has a consensus target price of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 168.20%. Given Ascent Solar Technologies’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ascent Solar Technologies is more favorable than GCT Semiconductor.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ascent Solar Technologies and GCT Semiconductor”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ascent Solar Technologies	$80,000.00	209.90	-$7.83 million	($1.48)	-1.16
GCT Semiconductor	$2.87 million	41.82	-$43.37 million	($0.80)	-1.63

Ascent Solar Technologies has higher earnings, but lower revenue than GCT Semiconductor. GCT Semiconductor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ascent Solar Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

10.6% of Ascent Solar Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.1% of GCT Semiconductor shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Ascent Solar Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of GCT Semiconductor shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Ascent Solar Technologies and GCT Semiconductor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ascent Solar Technologies	-4,217.19%	-85.21%	-64.83%
GCT Semiconductor	-1,301.99%	N/A	-189.45%

Volatility & Risk

Ascent Solar Technologies has a beta of 1.76, indicating that its share price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GCT Semiconductor has a beta of 1.78, indicating that its share price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

GCT Semiconductor beats Ascent Solar Technologies on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ascent Solar Technologies

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., a solar technology company, engages in the manufacture and sale of photovoltaic solar modules in the United States. The company markets and sells its products through OEMs, system integrators, distributors, retailers, and value-added resellers. It serves agrivoltaics, aerospace, satellites, near earth orbiting vehicles, and fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles. Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Thornton, Colorado.

About GCT Semiconductor

GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc., operates as a fabless semiconductor company, designs, develops, and markets integrated circuits for the wireless semiconductor industry. The company provides RF and modem chipsets based on 4G LTE technology, including 4G LTE, 4.5G LTE Advanced, and 4.75G LTE Advanced-Pro. It also develops and sells cellular IoT chipsets for low-speed mobile networks such as eMTC/NB-IOT/Sigfox, and other network protocols; and 5G solutions. Its products and solutions are used in smartphones, tablets, hotspots, CPEs, USB dongles, routers, and M2M applications. The company sells its products directly or indirectly through distributors to original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers primarily in Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, Europe, North America and South America. The company was formerly known as Global Communication Technology, Inc. GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.