Identiv (NASDAQ:INVE) vs. PC Connection (NASDAQ:CNXN) Head to Head Review

PC Connection (NASDAQ:CNXN) and Identiv (NASDAQ:INVE) are both technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

42.8% of PC Connection shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.2% of Identiv shares are held by institutional investors. 56.6% of PC Connection shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Identiv shares are held by company 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.

Risk & Volatility

PC Connection has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Identiv has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares PC Connection and Identiv”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PC Connection	$2.87 billion	0.81	$83.72 million	$3.78	24.44
Identiv	$21.48 million	2.65	-$18.00 million	($0.66)	-3.56

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

Profitability

This table compares PC Connection and Identiv’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PC Connection	3.21%	10.90%	7.29%
Identiv	-62.93%	-11.02%	-10.34%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for PC Connection and Identiv, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PC Connection	0	1	1	0	2.50
Identiv	1	2	0	0	1.67

Identiv has a consensus price target of $3.40, suggesting a potential upside of 44.68%. Given Identiv’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Identiv is more favorable than PC Connection.

Summary

PC Connection beats Identiv on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PC Connection

PC Connection, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of information technology (IT) solutions. The company operates through three segments: Business Solutions, Enterprise Solutions, and Public Sector Solutions. It offers IT products, such as computer systems, software and peripheral equipment, networking communications, and other products and accessories. The company also provides services comprising design, configuration, and implementation of IT solutions. In addition, publishes Connected, a quarterly publication that provides informative articles on the latest technologies and industry trends; distributes specialty catalogs to education, healthcare, and government customers; and MacConnection that publishes a catalog for the Apple market. The company markets its products and services through its Websites, such as connection.com, connection.com/enterprise, connection.com/publicsector, and macconnection.com. It serves small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) comprising small office/home offices customers; government and educational institutions; and medium-to-large corporate accounts through outbound telemarketing and field sales and marketing programs targeted to specific customer populations, as well as through digital, Web, and print media advertising. PC Connection, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

About Identiv

Identiv, Inc., a security technology company, that provides secure identification and physical security solutions that secure things, data, and physical places worldwide. It operates in two segments, Identity and Premises. The Identity segment offers products and solutions that enables secure access to information serving the logical access and cyber security markets, as well as protecting connected objects and information using radio-frequency identification embedded security. The Premises segment provides solutions for premises security market, such as access control, video surveillance, analytics, audio, access readers, and identities to government facilities, schools, utilities, hospitals, stores, and apartment buildings. The company sells its products through dealers, systems integrators, value added resellers, and resellers. The company was formerly known as Identive Group, Inc. and changed its name to Identiv, Inc. in May 2014. Identiv, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.