Comparing Ichor (NASDAQ:ICHR) and SemiLEDs (NASDAQ:LEDS)

SemiLEDs (NASDAQ:LEDS) and Ichor (NASDAQ:ICHR) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SemiLEDs and Ichor’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SemiLEDs	$5.31 million	2.06	-$2.69 million	($0.47)	-3.23
Ichor	$811.12 million	1.40	-$42.99 million	($1.77)	-19.14

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for SemiLEDs and Ichor, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SemiLEDs	0	0	0	0	N/A
Ichor	0	1	4	0	2.80

Ichor has a consensus target price of $46.60, indicating a potential upside of 37.54%. Given Ichor’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ichor is more favorable than SemiLEDs.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.3% of SemiLEDs shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.8% of Ichor shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.0% of SemiLEDs shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Ichor shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares SemiLEDs and Ichor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SemiLEDs	-44.37%	-120.86%	-18.80%
Ichor	-6.61%	-2.93%	-1.81%

Risk and Volatility

SemiLEDs has a beta of 1.03, meaning that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ichor has a beta of 1.94, meaning that its share price is 94% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ichor beats SemiLEDs on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Ichor

Ichor Holdings, Ltd. engages in the design, engineering, and manufacture of fluid delivery subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment in the United States and internationally. It primarily offers gas and chemical delivery systems and subsystems that are used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. The company's gas delivery subsystems deliver, monitor, and control gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as etch and deposition; and chemical delivery subsystems blend and dispense the reactive liquid chemistries used in semiconductor manufacturing processes comprising chemical-mechanical planarization, electroplating, and cleaning. In addition, it manufactures precision machined components, weldments, electron beam, laser-welded components, precision vacuum and hydrogen brazing, surface treatment technologies, and other proprietary products. The company primarily markets its products to equipment OEMs in the semiconductor equipment market in Japan. Ichor Holdings, Ltd. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.