Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB – Get Rating) and Daqo New Energy (NYSE:DQ – Get Rating) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and profitability.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Photronics and Daqo New Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Photronics | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
| Daqo New Energy | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
Photronics currently has a consensus price target of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 34.35%. Daqo New Energy has a consensus price target of $65.20, suggesting a potential upside of 72.76%. Given Daqo New Energy’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Daqo New Energy is more favorable than Photronics.
Valuation and Earnings
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Photronics | $845.81 million | 1.26 | $118.79 million | $1.83 | 9.36 |
| Daqo New Energy | $4.04 billion | 0.70 | $1.82 billion | $20.59 | 1.83 |
Daqo New Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Photronics. Daqo New Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Photronics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
90.4% of Photronics shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of Photronics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 24.3% of Daqo New Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Risk & Volatility
Photronics has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Daqo New Energy has a beta of 0.51, meaning that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Photronics and Daqo New Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Photronics | 13.26% | 11.20% | 9.01% |
| Daqo New Energy | 39.70% | 25.68% | 21.98% |
Summary
Daqo New Energy beats Photronics on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Photronics
Photronics, Inc. engages in the provision of photomasks. It manufactures semiconductors and flat-panel displays and is used as masters to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers and FPD substrates during the fabrication of integrated circuits, a variety of FPDs and other types of electrical and optical components. The company’s manufacturing facilities are located in Taiwan, Korea, the United States, and Europe. Photronics was founded by Constantine S. Macricostas in 1969 and is headquartered in Brookfield, CT.
About Daqo New Energy
Daqo New Energy Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of polysilicon products. It involves in the manufacture and sale of polysilicon to photovoltaic product manufactures, who further process the polysilicon into ingots, wafers, cells, and modules for solar power solutions. The company was founded by Guang Fu Xu on November 22, 2007 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
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