Reviewing PDF Solutions (PDFS) & Its Peers

PDF Solutions (NASDAQ:PDFS) is one of 221 publicly-traded companies in the “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare PDF Solutions to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares PDF Solutions and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
PDF Solutions	$219.02 million	-$640,000.00	150.44
PDF Solutions Competitors	$9.78 billion	$2.53 billion	8.27

PDF Solutions’ rivals have higher revenue and earnings than PDF Solutions. PDF Solutions is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for PDF Solutions and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PDF Solutions	0	3	6	0	2.67
PDF Solutions Competitors	3505	12358	25782	999	2.57

PDF Solutions currently has a consensus target price of $58.17, suggesting a potential upside of 54.66%. As a group, “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” companies have a potential upside of 53.78%. Given PDF Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe PDF Solutions is more favorable than its rivals.

Profitability

This table compares PDF Solutions and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PDF Solutions	6.28%	8.12%	5.56%
PDF Solutions Competitors	-1,267.00%	-126.31%	-3.96%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

79.5% of PDF Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of shares of all “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” companies are owned by institutional investors. 11.1% of PDF Solutions shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.5% of shares of all “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

PDF Solutions has a beta of 1.75, indicating that its share price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PDF Solutions’ rivals have a beta of 2.80, indicating that their average share price is 180% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

PDF Solutions beats its rivals on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About PDF Solutions

PDF Solutions, Inc. provides proprietary software and physical intellectual property products for integrated circuit designs, electrical measurement hardware tools, proven methodologies, and professional services in the United States, China, Japan, and internationally. The company offers Exensio software products, such as Manufacturing Analytics that store collected data in a common environment with a consistent view for enabling product engineers to identify and analyze production yield, performance, reliability, and other issues; Process Control that provides failure detection and classification capabilities for monitoring, alarming, and controlling manufacturing tool sets; Test Operations that offer data collection and analysis capabilities; and Assembly Operations that provide device manufacturers with the capability to link assembly and packaging data, including fabrication and characterization data over the product life cycle. It also provides Design-For-Inspection (DFI) systems, such as DFI On-Chip Instruments; eProbe Non-Contact E-Beam Tool; and Characterization Vehicle (CV) system, which includes CV Test Chips and pdFasTest Electrical Testers, as well as Exensio characterization software, designed to analyze the measurements collected using the eProbe tool. In addition, the company offers Cimetrix software products that enables equipment manufacturers to provide industry standard interfaces on their products; and software-as-a-service, software related services, and characterization services. It sells its technologies and services through direct sales force, service teams, and strategic alliances to integrated device manufacturers, fabless semiconductor companies, foundries, equipment manufacturers, electronics manufacturing suppliers, original device manufacturers, out-sourced semiconductor assembly and test, and system houses. PDF Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.