nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) & Credo Technology Group (NASDAQ:CRDO) Head-To-Head Analysis

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) and Credo Technology Group (NASDAQ:CRDO) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

nLight has a beta of 2.34, suggesting that its share price is 134% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Credo Technology Group has a beta of 3.17, suggesting that its share price is 217% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.9% of nLight shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.5% of Credo Technology Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of nLight shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.8% of Credo Technology Group 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares nLight and Credo Technology Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
nLight	$261.33 million	17.57	-$23.47 million	($0.30)	-271.30
Credo Technology Group	$436.77 million	93.43	$52.18 million	$1.80	122.91

Credo Technology Group has higher revenue and earnings than nLight. nLight is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Credo Technology Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for nLight and Credo Technology Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
nLight	1	1	9	1	2.83
Credo Technology Group	0	2	15	2	3.00

nLight presently has a consensus target price of $69.06, indicating a potential downside of 15.15%. Credo Technology Group has a consensus target price of $210.65, indicating a potential downside of 4.78%. Given Credo Technology Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Credo Technology Group is more favorable than nLight.

Profitability

This table compares nLight and Credo Technology Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
nLight	-5.08%	-4.18%	-3.20%
Credo Technology Group	31.81%	29.63%	26.20%

Summary

Credo Technology Group beats nLight on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About nLight

nLIGHT, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor and fiber lasers for industrial, microfabrication, and aerospace and defense applications. The company operates in two segments, Laser Products and Advanced Development. It offers semiconductor lasers with various ranges of power levels, wavelengths, and output fiber sizes; and programmable and serviceable fiber lasers for use in industrial and aerospace and defense applications. The company also provides laser sensors, including light detection and ranging technologies for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications; and fiber amplifiers, beam combination, and control systems for use in high-energy laser systems in directed energy applications. It sells its products through direct sales force in the United States, China, South Korea, and European countries, as well as through independent sales representatives and distributors in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. The company was formerly known as nLight Photonics Corporation and changed its name to nLIGHT, Inc. in January 2016. nLIGHT, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Camas, Washington.

About Credo Technology Group

Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd provides various high-speed connectivity Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd provides various high-speed connectivity solutions for optical and electrical Ethernet applications in the United States, Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and internationally. Its products include HiWire active electrical cables, optical digital signal processors, low-power line card PHY, serializer/deserializer (SerDes) chiplets, and SerDes IP, as well as integrated circuits, active electrical cables. The company also offers intellectual property solutions consist of SerDes IP licensing. It sells its products to hyperscalers, original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers and optical module manufacturers, as well as into the enterprise and HPC markets. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.