Financial Contrast: FTC Solar (NASDAQ:FTCI) & Netlist (OTCMKTS:NLST)

FTC Solar (NASDAQ:FTCI) and Netlist (OTCMKTS:NLST) are both small-cap oils/energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for FTC Solar and Netlist, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FTC Solar	0	5	2	1	2.50
Netlist	0	0	0	0	N/A

FTC Solar presently has a consensus target price of $1.11, suggesting a potential upside of 366.36%. Given FTC Solar’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe FTC Solar is more favorable than Netlist.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares FTC Solar and Netlist’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FTC Solar	$77.77 million	0.38	-$50.29 million	($0.39)	-0.61
Netlist	$69.21 million	4.77	-$60.40 million	($0.25)	-5.17

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

Risk and Volatility

FTC Solar has a beta of 1.59, meaning that its stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Netlist has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.4% of FTC Solar shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Netlist shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.1% of FTC Solar shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Netlist shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares FTC Solar and Netlist’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FTC Solar	-47.92%	-63.07%	-33.41%
Netlist	-50.76%	-266.39%	-90.95%

Summary

FTC Solar beats Netlist on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About FTC Solar

FTC Solar, Inc. engages in the provision of solar tracker systems, software, and engineering services in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, South Africa, and Australia. The company offers a self-powered, two-panel in-portrait, and single-axis tracker solution under the Voyager brand name; and a one module-in-portrait solar tracker solution under the Pioneer brand name. Its customers include project developers and solar asset owners, as well as engineering, procurement, and construction contractors that design and build solar energy projects. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

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.