Analyzing IQE (OTCMKTS:IQEPF) and SemiLEDS (NASDAQ:LEDS)

IQE (OTCMKTS:IQEPF) and SemiLEDS (NASDAQ:LEDS) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for IQE and SemiLEDS, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IQE	0	0	0	0	0.00
SemiLEDS	1	0	0	0	1.00

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares IQE and SemiLEDS”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IQE	$150.84 million	0.73	-$48.79 million	N/A	N/A
SemiLEDS	$43.01 million	0.32	-$1.13 million	($0.16)	-10.31

SemiLEDS has lower revenue, but higher earnings than IQE.

Volatility and Risk

IQE has a beta of 1.5, indicating that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SemiLEDS has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.3% of SemiLEDS shares are owned by institutional investors. 57.4% of SemiLEDS shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares IQE and SemiLEDS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IQE	N/A	N/A	N/A
SemiLEDS	-2.99%	-42.61%	-6.96%

Summary

IQE beats SemiLEDS on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About IQE

IQE plc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells advanced semiconductor materials. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Photonics, and CMOS++. The company manufactures and sells compound semiconductor materials for the wireless market which includes radio frequency devices for wireless communications, and photonics market, that includes applications that transmit and sense visible and infrared lights, as well as advanced semiconductor materials related to silicon. It operates in the United States, rest of the Americas, France, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the People's Republic of China, Japan, Taiwan, and rest of the Asia-Pacific. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Cardiff, the United Kingdom.

About SemiLEDS

SemiLEDs Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells light emitting diode (LED) chips, LED components, and LED modules and systems in the United States, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, and internationally. The company also sells enhanced vertical, LED product series in blue, white, green, and UV; LED chips to packagers or distributors; and lighting products primarily to original design manufacturers of lighting products and the end-users of lighting devices, as well as packs and sells its LED chips. Its products are used for general lighting applications, including commercial, industrial, and residential lighting; and specialty industrial applications, such as ultraviolet or UV, curing of polymers, LED light therapy in medical/cosmetic applications, counterfeit detection, germicidal and viricidal devices LED lighting for horticulture applications, architectural lighting, and entertainment lighting. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Chu-Nan, Taiwan.