Comparing Amtech Systems (NASDAQ:ASYS) and Impinj (NASDAQ:PI)

Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) and Amtech Systems (NASDAQ:ASYS) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Impinj and Amtech Systems, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Impinj	1	3	7	0	2.55
Amtech Systems	0	3	2	0	2.40

Impinj presently has a consensus target price of $185.70, suggesting a potential upside of 11.15%. Amtech Systems has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 77.13%. Given Amtech Systems’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Amtech Systems is more favorable than Impinj.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

50.2% of Amtech Systems shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.8% of Impinj shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.9% of Amtech Systems shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Impinj has a beta of 1.94, meaning that its stock price is 94% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amtech Systems has a beta of 2.09, meaning that its stock price is 109% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Impinj and Amtech Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Impinj	-7.26%	5.23%	2.09%
Amtech Systems	4.90%	6.33%	4.00%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Impinj and Amtech Systems”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Impinj	$371.52 million	13.74	-$10.85 million	($0.92)	-181.60
Amtech Systems	$79.36 million	2.74	-$30.33 million	$0.26	47.77

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

Summary

Amtech Systems beats Impinj on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Impinj

Impinj, Inc. operates a cloud connectivity platform in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its platform wirelessly connects items and delivers data about the connected items to business and consumer applications. The company’s platform comprises endpoint ICs, a miniature radios-on-a-chip that attaches to a host item and includes a number to identify the item. Its platform also consists of systems products that consists of reader ICs, readers, and gateways to wirelessly provide power to and communicate bidirectionally with endpoint ICs on host items, as well as to read, write, authenticate, and engage the endpoint ICs on those items; and software and algorithms that enable its partners to solve enterprise business problems, such as retail self-checkout and loss prevention. The company primarily serves retail, supply chain and logistics, automotive, aviation, banking, datacenters, food, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, linen and uniform tracking, sports, and travel industries through original equipment and device manufacturers, tag service bureaus, systems integrators, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, and other solution partners. Impinj, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Amtech Systems

Amtech Systems, Inc. manufactures and sells capital equipment and related consumables for use in fabricating silicon carbide (SiC), silicon power devices, analog and discrete devices, electronic assemblies, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) worldwide. The company operates through Semiconductor and Material and Substrate segments. The Semiconductor segment designs, manufactures, sells, and services thermal processing equipment, including solder reflow ovens, horizontal diffusion furnaces, and custom high-temp belt furnaces for use by semiconductor, electronics, and electro/mechanical assembly manufacturers; and diffusion and reflow thermal systems, as well as wafer cleaning equipment and related services. The Material and Substrate segment manufactures and sells consumables and machinery for lapping and polishing of materials, such as silicon wafers for semiconductor products; sapphire substrates for LED lighting and mobile devices; silicon carbide wafers for LED and power device applications; various glass and silica components for 3D image transmission; quartz and ceramic components for telecommunications devices; and medical device components, and optical and photonics applications. It also offers substrate products comprising of double-sided wafer cleaning system, entegrity head tester, substrate carrier, substrate polishing templates, double-sided lapping and polishing machines, single-sided polisher, and substrate process chemicals. The company sells its products through sales personnel, as well as a network of independent sales representatives and distributors. Amtech Systems, Inc. was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.