Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) & Daktronics (NASDAQ:DAKT) Critical Contrast

Daktronics (NASDAQ:DAKT) and Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) are both technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Daktronics has a beta of 1.68, indicating that its stock price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Littelfuse has a beta of 1.48, indicating that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Daktronics and Littelfuse”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Daktronics	$838.71 million	1.03	$45.38 million	$0.98	18.33
Littelfuse	$2.39 billion	4.86	-$71.70 million	($0.50)	-913.06

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

61.7% of Daktronics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Littelfuse shares are held by institutional investors. 4.6% of Daktronics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Littelfuse shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Daktronics and Littelfuse’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Daktronics	5.66%	18.05%	9.68%
Littelfuse	-0.31%	13.02%	8.32%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Daktronics and Littelfuse, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Daktronics	0	2	2	0	2.50
Littelfuse	0	2	4	0	2.67

Daktronics presently has a consensus price target of $31.00, indicating a potential upside of 72.61%. Littelfuse has a consensus price target of $465.83, indicating a potential upside of 2.04%. Given Daktronics’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Daktronics is more favorable than Littelfuse.

Summary

Daktronics beats Littelfuse on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Daktronics

Daktronics, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells electronic scoreboards, programmable display systems and large screen video displays for sporting, commercial, and transportation applications in the United States and internationally. It operates through Commercial, Live Events, High School Park and Recreation, Transportation, and International segments. The company also offers video display and walls; scoreboards and timing systems; LED message displays and sings; intelligent transportation systems dynamic message signs; mass transit display; sound systems; and digital billboards and street furniture, and digit and price displays. In addition, it provides indoor dynamic messaging systems and liquid crystal display signs; and software and controllers, which includes Venus, a control suite software to control the creation of messages and graphic sequences for uploading to displays. The company sells its products through direct sales and resellers. Daktronics, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota.

About Littelfuse

Littelfuse, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components, modules, and subassemblies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, electromechanical switches and interconnect solutions, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, varistors, reed switch based magnetic sensing products, and gas discharge tubes; and discrete transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diodes, TVS diode arrays, protection and switching thyristors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors. This segment serves industrial motor drives and power conversion, automotive electronics, electric vehicle and related charging infrastructure, aerospace, power supplies, data centers, telecommunications, medical devices, alternative energy, building and home automation, appliances, and mobile electronics markets. The Transportation segment provides blade, resettable, and high-current and high-voltage fuses, as well as battery cable protectors; fuses, switches, relays, circuit breakers, and power distribution modules; and sensor products. This segment serves heavy-duty truck, construction, agriculture, material handling, and marine. The Industrial segment offers industrial fuses, protection relays, contactors, transformers, residual current devices, ground fault circuit interrupters, residual current monitors, arc fault detection devices, and temperature sensors for use in renewable energy and energy storage systems, electric vehicle infrastructure, HVAC systems, industrial safety, non-residential construction, MRO, mining, and factory automation. It sells its products through distributors, direct sales force, and manufacturers' representatives. Littelfuse, Inc. was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.