United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) versus SemiLEDS (NASDAQ:LEDS) Head-To-Head Contrast

United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) and SemiLEDS (NASDAQ:LEDS) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Microelectronics	$7.57 billion	3.09	$1.34 billion	$0.54	17.23
SemiLEDS	$44.32 million	0.23	-$1.13 million	($0.16)	-7.75

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

5.1% of United Microelectronics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of SemiLEDS shares are held by institutional investors. 8.0% of United Microelectronics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 57.4% of SemiLEDS shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for United Microelectronics and SemiLEDS, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Microelectronics	3	2	0	1	1.83
SemiLEDS	1	0	0	0	1.00

United Microelectronics currently has a consensus target price of $8.60, suggesting a potential downside of 7.58%. Given United Microelectronics’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe United Microelectronics is more favorable than SemiLEDS.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Microelectronics	17.60%	11.45%	7.45%
SemiLEDS	-2.99%	-42.61%	-6.96%

Volatility and Risk

United Microelectronics has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SemiLEDS has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

United Microelectronics beats SemiLEDS on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Microelectronics

United Microelectronics Corporation operates as a semiconductor wafer foundry in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides circuit design, mask tooling, wafer fabrication, and assembly and testing services. It serves fabless design companies and integrated device manufacturers. United Microelectronics Corporation was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.

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.