Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) and Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) Head to Head Review

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) and Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Rambus has a beta of 1.84, suggesting that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Impinj has a beta of 1.92, suggesting that its share price is 92% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Rambus and Impinj’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rambus	31.90%	17.41%	15.47%
Impinj	-7.66%	5.67%	2.18%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

88.5% of Rambus shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Rambus shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.8% of Impinj shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Rambus and Impinj, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rambus	0	4	5	2	2.82
Impinj	1	3	5	0	2.44

Rambus currently has a consensus target price of $134.75, suggesting a potential upside of 33.61%. Impinj has a consensus target price of $175.00, suggesting a potential upside of 27.07%. Given Rambus’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Rambus is more favorable than Impinj.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Rambus and Impinj”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rambus	$707.63 million	15.41	$230.46 million	$2.10	48.02
Impinj	$361.08 million	11.62	-$10.85 million	($0.92)	-149.70

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

Summary

Rambus beats Impinj on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rambus

Rambus Inc. provides semiconductor products in the United States, South Korea, Singapore, and internationally. The company offers DDR memory interface chips, including DDR5 and DDR4 memory interface chips to module manufacturers, OEMs, and hyperscalers; silicon IP, such as interface and security IP solutions that move and protect data in advanced data center, government, and automotive applications; and interface IP solutions for high-speed memory and chip-to-chip digital controller IP. It also provides a portfolios of security IP solutions, including crypto cores, hardware roots of trust, high-speed protocol engines, and chip provisioning technologies; and portfolio of patents that covers memory architecture, high-speed serial links, and security products. It markets its products and services through its direct sales force and distributors. Rambus Inc. was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Impinj

Impinj, Inc. operates a cloud connectivity platform in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its platform wirelessly connects items and delivers data about the connected items to business and consumer applications. The company’s platform comprises endpoint ICs, a miniature radios-on-a-chip that attaches to a host item and includes a number to identify the item. Its platform also consists of systems products that consists of reader ICs, readers, and gateways to wirelessly provide power to and communicate bidirectionally with endpoint ICs on host items, as well as to read, write, authenticate, and engage the endpoint ICs on those items; and software and algorithms that enable its partners to solve enterprise business problems, such as retail self-checkout and loss prevention. The company primarily serves retail, supply chain and logistics, automotive, aviation, banking, datacenters, food, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, linen and uniform tracking, sports, and travel industries through original equipment and device manufacturers, tag service bureaus, systems integrators, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, and other solution partners. Impinj, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.