Head-To-Head Survey: SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) vs. Netlist (OTCMKTS:NLST)

SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) and Netlist (OTCMKTS:NLST) are both small-cap energy 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.

Volatility and Risk

SolarEdge Technologies has a beta of 1.63, indicating that its share price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Netlist has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for SolarEdge Technologies and Netlist, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SolarEdge Technologies	9	15	2	1	1.81
Netlist	0	0	1	0	3.00

SolarEdge Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $16.82, suggesting a potential upside of 28.37%. Netlist has a consensus price target of $2.00, suggesting a potential upside of 124.72%. Given Netlist’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Netlist is more favorable than SolarEdge Technologies.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

95.1% of SolarEdge Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Netlist shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of SolarEdge Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Netlist 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SolarEdge Technologies and Netlist”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SolarEdge Technologies	$901.46 million	0.86	$34.33 million	($31.19)	-0.42
Netlist	$69.21 million	3.53	-$60.40 million	($0.22)	-4.05

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

Profitability

This table compares SolarEdge Technologies and Netlist’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SolarEdge Technologies	-192.13%	-95.05%	-41.78%
Netlist	-37.19%	-852.20%	-94.11%

Summary

SolarEdge Technologies beats Netlist on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SolarEdge Technologies

SolarEdge Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells direct current (DC) optimized inverter systems for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, rest of Europe, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Solar and Energy Storage. The Solar segment offers power optimizers, inverters, batteries, storage solutions, electric vehicle chargers, smart tracking solutions, and smart energy management software products; Monitoring platform, a cloud-based monitoring platform, which collects power, voltage, current, and system data sent from inverters and power optimizers; and MySolarEdge app, that enables system owners to track their real-time system production and household energy consumption. This segment also provides Designer platform, an web-based tool that helps solar professionals to plan, build, and validate residential and commercial systems; Mapper application for registering the physical layout of new PV sites installed with DC optimized inverter systems; SetApp application that activates and configurate inverters; and grid services. The Energy Storage segment provides lithium-ion cells and containerized battery systems (BESS) solutions for commercial, industrial, and utility markets; modules and racks; purpose-built components and solutions, and hardware and software tools; and pre and post sales engineering support for designing, building, and managing battery and system solutions. The company offers e-mobility products, automated machines, and UPS products; and pre-sales support, ongoing trainings, and technical support and after installation services. It sells its products through solar installers and distributors, electrical equipment wholesalers, and PV module manufacturers, as well as engineering, procurement, and construction firms. SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel.

About Netlist

Netlist, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets memory subsystems for the server, high-performance computing, and communications markets in the United States and internationally. The company portfolio of proprietary technologies and design techniques, includes efficient planar design, alternative packaging techniques, and custom semiconductor logic, to deliver memory subsystems; and sells specialty memory modules and flash-based products for use in data center and industrial applications. It resells component products, including solid state drive (SSD), NAND flash, and dual inline memory module (DIMM) to storage customers, appliance customers, system builders, and cloud and datacenter customers; and sells component inventory to distributors and other users of memory integrated circuits. The company markets and sells its products through a direct sales force and a network of independent sales representatives. Netlist, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.