Financial Comparison: POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) versus Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM)

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) and POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Tower Semiconductor and POET Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tower Semiconductor	$1.40 billion	4.08	$518.49 million	$1.85	27.86
POET Technologies	$119,946.00	3,934.48	-$20.27 million	($0.59)	-10.46

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

Risk & Volatility

Tower Semiconductor has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, POET Technologies has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Tower Semiconductor and POET Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tower Semiconductor	0	0	3	0	3.00
POET Technologies	0	0	2	1	3.33

Tower Semiconductor currently has a consensus target price of $58.33, indicating a potential upside of 13.16%. POET Technologies has a consensus target price of $6.25, indicating a potential upside of 1.30%. Given Tower Semiconductor’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Tower Semiconductor is more favorable than POET Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Tower Semiconductor and POET Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tower Semiconductor	14.75%	8.22%	6.91%
POET Technologies	N/A	-194.16%	-132.32%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.5% of Tower Semiconductor shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.0% of POET Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Tower Semiconductor shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Tower Semiconductor beats POET Technologies on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor Ltd., an independent semiconductor foundry, focus on specialty process technologies to manufacture analog intensive mixed-signal semiconductor devices in Israel, the United States, Japan, Europe, and internationally. It provides various customizable process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, integrated power management, and MEMS. The Company also provides design enablement platform for quick and accurate design cycle, as well as transfer optimization and development process services to integrated device manufacturers and fabless companies. It serves various markets, such as consumer electronics, personal computers, communications, automotive, industrial, aerospace, military, and medical device products. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Migdal Haemek, Israel.

About POET Technologies

POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and China. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, optical coherence tomography for medical devices, and virtual reality systems markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.