Critical Comparison: JinkoSolar (NYSE:JKS) & Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC)

JinkoSolar (NYSE:JKS) and Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for JinkoSolar and Kulicke and Soffa Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
JinkoSolar	1	5	0	0	1.83
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	0	3	1	0	2.25

JinkoSolar currently has a consensus target price of $24.60, suggesting a potential upside of 20.47%. Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a consensus target price of $47.33, suggesting a potential upside of 7.94%. Given JinkoSolar’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe JinkoSolar is more favorable than Kulicke and Soffa Industries.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

35.8% of JinkoSolar shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.2% of Kulicke and Soffa Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 19.8% of JinkoSolar shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Kulicke and Soffa Industries 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares JinkoSolar and Kulicke and Soffa Industries”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
JinkoSolar	$111.76 billion	0.01	$485.56 million	$6.41	3.19
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	$727.23 million	3.34	$57.15 million	($1.19)	-36.85

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

Dividends

JinkoSolar pays an annual dividend of $2.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.5%. Kulicke and Soffa Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. JinkoSolar pays out 46.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kulicke and Soffa Industries pays out -67.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Volatility and Risk

JinkoSolar has a beta of 0.43, indicating that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a beta of 1.38, indicating that its stock price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares JinkoSolar and Kulicke and Soffa Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JinkoSolar	1.65%	7.86%	2.00%
Kulicke and Soffa Industries	-7.94%	0.61%	0.47%

Summary

JinkoSolar beats Kulicke and Soffa Industries on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About JinkoSolar

JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, production, and marketing of photovoltaic products. The company offers solar modules, silicon wafers, solar cells, recovered silicon materials, and silicon ingots. It also provides solar system integration services; solar power generation and solar system EPC services; and energy storage system, as well as undertakes solar power projects. The company sells its products to distributors, project developers, system integrators, and manufacturers of solar power products under the JinkoSolar brand. As of December 31, 2023, it had an integrated annual capacity of 85 gigawatts (GW) for mono wafers; 90 GW for solar cells; and 110 GW for solar modules. It operates in China, the United States, Mexico, Australia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan, Vietnam, Egypt, Spain, Germany, and internationally. JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Shangrao, the People's Republic of China.

About Kulicke and Soffa Industries

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells capital equipment and tools used to assemble semiconductor devices. It operates through four segments: Ball Bonding Equipment, Wedge Bonding Equipment, Advanced Solutions, and Aftermarket Products and Services (APS). The company offers ball bonding equipment, wafer level bonding equipment, wedge bonding equipment; and advanced display, die-attach, and thermocompression systems and solutions, as well as tools, spares and services for equipment. It also services, maintains, repairs, and upgrades equipment. The company serves semiconductor device manufacturers, integrated device manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers, other electronics manufacturers, industrial manufacturers, foundry service providers, and automotive electronics suppliers primarily in the United States and the Asia/Pacific region. The company was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.