Head to Head Survey: Geospace Technologies (NASDAQ:GEOS) and Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS)

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) and Geospace Technologies (NASDAQ:GEOS) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Keysight Technologies and Geospace Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Keysight Technologies	14.50%	19.65%	10.71%
Geospace Technologies	-14.03%	0.69%	0.62%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

84.6% of Keysight Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.2% of Geospace Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Keysight Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Geospace Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Keysight Technologies has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Geospace Technologies has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Keysight Technologies and Geospace Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Keysight Technologies	1	0	8	0	2.78
Geospace Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00

Keysight Technologies currently has a consensus target price of $183.00, indicating a potential upside of 15.54%. Given Keysight Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Keysight Technologies is more favorable than Geospace Technologies.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Keysight Technologies and Geospace Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Keysight Technologies	$4.98 billion	5.47	$614.00 million	$4.26	37.18
Geospace Technologies	$135.60 million	1.31	-$6.58 million	($1.28)	-10.84

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

Summary

Keysight Technologies beats Geospace Technologies on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight Technologies, Inc. provides electronic design and test solutions to commercial communications, networking, aerospace, defense and government, automotive, energy, semiconductor, electronic, and education industries in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Communications Solutions Group and Electronic Industrial Solutions Group. It offers electronic design automation (EDA) software; instrument measurement software, instrument workflow software, and software testing; digital multimeter, phase noise measurement, power meters and power sensors, counters, LCR meters and impedance measurement products, and electrometers; and spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers and exercisers, bit error ratio testers, noise figure analyzers, AC and DC power analyzers, materials test equipment, device current waveform analyzers, and curve tracers. The company also provides waveform and function generators, arbitrary waveform generators, DC power supplies, and DC electronic loads; wireless drive test, radio access and core network test, wireless analyzers, wireless network emulators, and over-the-air test; application and threat intelligence, cloud test, cyber training simulator, network test hardware, synthetic traffic generators, protocol and load test, network security test, and network modeling; bypass switches, clock synchronization, cloud visibility, network and application monitoring, network packet brokers, and network taps; and application-specific test systems, photonic test and measurement products, and MMIC millimeter-wave and microwave devices. In addition, it offers product support, technical support, installation, training, engineering, and integration services. The company sells its products through direct sales force, distributors, resellers, and manufacturer's representatives. Keysight Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Santa Rosa, California.

About Geospace Technologies

Geospace Technologies Corporation designs and manufactures instruments and equipment used in the oil and gas industry to acquire seismic data in order to locate, characterize, and monitor hydrocarbon producing reservoirs. The company operates through three segments: Oil and Gas Markets, Adjacent Markets, and Emerging Markets. The Oil and Gas Markets segment offers wireless seismic data acquisition systems and reservoir characterization products and services, as well as traditional seismic exploration products, such as geophones, hydrophones, leader wires, connectors, cables, marine streamer retrieval and steering devices, and other seismic products. The Adjacent Markets segment provides industrial products, including imaging equipment, water meter products, remote shut-off valves, and Internet of Things platform, as well as seismic sensors for vibration monitoring and geotechnical applications, such as mine safety and earthquake detection applications; and electronic pre-press products that employ direct thermal imaging, direct-to-screen printing systems, and digital inkjet printing technologies targeted at the commercial and industrial graphics, textile, and flexographic printing industries. The Emerging Markets segment designs and sells products used for border and perimeter security surveillance, cross-border tunneling detection, and other products targeted at movement monitoring, intrusion detection, and situational awareness. This segment serves various agencies of the United States government, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies. The company operates in Asia, Canada, Europe, South America, the United States, and internationally. Geospace Technologies Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.