Reviewing Ascent Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:ASTI) and SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG)

Ascent Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:ASTI) and SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ascent Solar Technologies and SolarEdge Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ascent Solar Technologies	$40,000.00	107.52	-$9.13 million	N/A	N/A
SolarEdge Technologies	$901.46 million	1.90	-$1.81 billion	($30.14)	-0.96

Ascent Solar Technologies has higher earnings, but lower revenue than SolarEdge Technologies.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

10.6% of Ascent Solar Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.1% of SolarEdge Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 10.2% of Ascent Solar Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of SolarEdge Technologies shares are held by company 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.

Profitability

This table compares Ascent Solar Technologies and SolarEdge Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ascent Solar Technologies	N/A	-223.96%	-95.86%
SolarEdge Technologies	-182.81%	-127.53%	-46.17%

Volatility and Risk

Ascent Solar Technologies has a beta of 2.58, indicating that its stock price is 158% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SolarEdge Technologies has a beta of 1.62, indicating that its stock price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Ascent Solar Technologies and SolarEdge Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ascent Solar Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00
SolarEdge Technologies	10	18	0	0	1.64

SolarEdge Technologies has a consensus price target of $17.36, suggesting a potential downside of 40.16%. Given SolarEdge Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SolarEdge Technologies is more favorable than Ascent Solar Technologies.

Summary

SolarEdge Technologies beats Ascent Solar Technologies on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ascent Solar Technologies

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., a solar technology company, engages in the manufacture and sale of photovoltaic solar modules in the United States. The company markets and sells its products through OEMs, system integrators, distributors, retailers, and value-added resellers. It serves agrivoltaics, aerospace, satellites, near earth orbiting vehicles, and fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles. Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Thornton, Colorado.

About SolarEdge Technologies

SolarEdge Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells direct current (DC) optimized inverter systems for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, rest of Europe, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Solar and Energy Storage. The Solar segment offers power optimizers, inverters, batteries, storage solutions, electric vehicle chargers, smart tracking solutions, and smart energy management software products; Monitoring platform, a cloud-based monitoring platform, which collects power, voltage, current, and system data sent from inverters and power optimizers; and MySolarEdge app, that enables system owners to track their real-time system production and household energy consumption. This segment also provides Designer platform, an web-based tool that helps solar professionals to plan, build, and validate residential and commercial systems; Mapper application for registering the physical layout of new PV sites installed with DC optimized inverter systems; SetApp application that activates and configurate inverters; and grid services. The Energy Storage segment provides lithium-ion cells and containerized battery systems (BESS) solutions for commercial, industrial, and utility markets; modules and racks; purpose-built components and solutions, and hardware and software tools; and pre and post sales engineering support for designing, building, and managing battery and system solutions. The company offers e-mobility products, automated machines, and UPS products; and pre-sales support, ongoing trainings, and technical support and after installation services. It sells its products through solar installers and distributors, electrical equipment wholesalers, and PV module manufacturers, as well as engineering, procurement, and construction firms. SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel.