Analyzing ASM International (OTCMKTS:ASMIY) and POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET)

ASM International (OTCMKTS:ASMIY) and POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) are both technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

ASM International has a beta of 2.03, suggesting that its stock price is 103% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, POET Technologies has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for ASM International and POET Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ASM International	1	2	5	0	2.50
POET Technologies	1	0	0	0	1.00

POET Technologies has a consensus target price of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.70%. Given POET Technologies’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe POET Technologies is more favorable than ASM International.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.0% of ASM International shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.0% of POET Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 24.4% of ASM International shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares ASM International and POET Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ASM International	$3.59 billion	14.52	$818.79 million	$25.50	41.82
POET Technologies	$1.08 million	1,107.55	-$62.96 million	($0.58)	-13.43

ASM International has higher revenue and earnings than POET Technologies. POET Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ASM International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares ASM International and POET Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ASM International	31.94%	22.22%	16.33%
POET Technologies	-4,423.13%	-11.65%	-10.12%

Summary

ASM International beats POET Technologies on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ASM International

ASM International NV, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, manufacture, marketing, and servicing of equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices in Europe, the United States, and Asia. The company’s products include wafer processing deposition systems for atomic layer deposition (ALD), epitaxy, silicon carbide, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and vertical furnace systems, including low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), diffusion, and oxidation products, as well as provides spare parts and support services. It also manufactures and sells equipment, which is used in wafer processing, encompassing the fabrication steps in which silicon wafers are layered with semiconductor devices. The company offers its products to semiconductor manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Advanced Semiconductor Materials International NV. ASM International NV was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands.

About POET Technologies

POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and China. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, optical coherence tomography for medical devices, and virtual reality systems markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.