Contrasting Canon (OTCMKTS:CAJPY) & Lenovo Group (OTCMKTS:LNVGF)

Lenovo Group (OTCMKTS:LNVGF) and Canon (OTCMKTS:CAJPY) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Lenovo Group pays an annual dividend of $0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Canon pays an annual dividend of $0.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Lenovo Group pays out 36.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Canon pays out 30.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Canon is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Lenovo Group and Canon, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lenovo Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Canon	0	1	0	0	2.00

Insider and Institutional Ownership

23.3% of Lenovo Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Canon shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lenovo Group and Canon”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lenovo Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.09	43.78
Canon	$29.46 billion	0.86	$2.22 billion	$2.54	11.39

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

Profitability

This table compares Lenovo Group and Canon’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lenovo Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Canon	7.36%	9.33%	5.51%

Summary

Canon beats Lenovo Group on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lenovo Group

Lenovo Group Limited, an investment holding company, develops, manufactures, and markets technology products and services. It operates through Intelligent Devices Group, Infrastructure Solutions Group, and Solutions and Services Group segments. The company offers commercial and consumer personal computers, as well as servers and workstations; and a family of mobile Internet devices, including tablets and smartphones. In addition, it provides laptops, monitors, accessories, smart home and collaboration solutions, augmented and virtual reality, commercial internet of things, and smart infrastructure data center solutions. Further, the company manufactures and distributes IT products, computers, computer hardware, and peripheral equipment; and offers IT, business planning, management, supply chain, finance, administration support, procurement agency, data management, intellectual property, and investment management services. Additionally, it is involved in the retail and service business for consumer electronic products and related digital services; development, ownership, licensing, and sale of communications hardware and software; and develops software and applications. Furthermore, the company distributes smartphone, tablet, server, and storage. It operates in China, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Lenovo Group Limited was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong.

About Canon

Canon Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells office multifunction devices (MFDs), plain paper copying machines, laser and inkjet printers, cameras, diagnostic equipment, and lithography equipment. The company operates through four segments: Printing Business Unit, Imaging Business Unit, Medical Business Unit, and Industrial and Others Business Unit. The Printing Business Unit segment offers office MFDs, document solutions, laser multifunction printers, laser printers, inkjet printers, image scanners, calculators, digital continuous feed presses, digital sheet-fed presses, and large format printers. The Imaging Business Unit segment provides interchangeable-lens digital cameras, digital compact cameras, interchangeable lenses, compact photo printers, network cameras, video management and video content analytics software, digital camcorders, digital cinema cameras, broadcast equipment, and multimedia projectors. The Medical System Business Unit segment offers computed tomography systems, diagnostic ultrasound systems, diagnostic X-ray systems, magnetic resonance imaging systems, clinical chemistry analyzers, digital radiography systems, and ophthalmic equipment. The Industry and Others Business Unit segment provides semiconductor lithography equipment, flat panel display lithography equipment, vacuum thin-film deposition equipment, organic light-emitting diode display manufacturing equipment, die bonders, handy terminals, and document scanners. The company also provides maintenance services; and supplies replacement drums, parts, toners, and papers. It sells its products under the Canon brand through subsidiaries or independent distributors to dealers and retail outlets, as well as directly to end-users globally. Canon Inc. was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.