indie Semiconductor (NASDAQ:INDI) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Critical Comparison

indie Semiconductor (NASDAQ:INDI) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.7% of indie Semiconductor shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.6% of Applied Materials shares are held by institutional investors. 8.2% of indie Semiconductor shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Applied Materials shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for indie Semiconductor and Applied Materials, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
indie Semiconductor	0	1	5	0	2.83
Applied Materials	1	6	15	0	2.64

indie Semiconductor presently has a consensus target price of $7.50, suggesting a potential upside of 155.97%. Applied Materials has a consensus target price of $215.38, suggesting a potential upside of 38.35%. Given indie Semiconductor’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe indie Semiconductor is more favorable than Applied Materials.

Profitability

This table compares indie Semiconductor and Applied Materials’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
indie Semiconductor	-61.59%	-28.08%	-17.01%
Applied Materials	22.95%	39.50%	22.12%

Risk and Volatility

indie Semiconductor has a beta of 1.54, indicating that its stock price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Materials has a beta of 1.62, indicating that its stock price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares indie Semiconductor and Applied Materials”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
indie Semiconductor	$216.68 million	2.73	-$117.62 million	($0.76)	-3.86
Applied Materials	$27.64 billion	4.58	$7.18 billion	$7.65	20.35

Applied Materials has higher revenue and earnings than indie Semiconductor. indie Semiconductor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Applied Materials, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Applied Materials beats indie Semiconductor on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About indie Semiconductor

indie Semiconductor, Inc. provides automotive semiconductors and software solutions for advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicle, in-cabin, connected car, and electrification applications in the United States, South America, rest of North America, Greater China, South Korea, rest of the Asia Pacific, and Europe. It offers ultrasonic sensors for parking assist and systems; radar sensors for audio assistance and reverse information; front cameras for vehicle detection, collision avoidance, and sign reading; and side/inside cameras for blind spot and lane change assist, and driver behavior monitoring. The company also provides LiDAR for distance, speed, and obstacle detection, collision avoidance, and emergency brake system; and long range RADAR for audio assistance, obstacle detection, and ACC stop and go. In addition, it designs and manufactures photonic components on various technology platforms, including fiber Bragg gratings, low-noise lasers, athermal and tunable packaging, photonic integration, and low-noise and high-speed electronics. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc. engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. The company operates through three segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment develops, manufactures, and sells various manufacturing equipment that is used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits. This segment also offers various technologies, including epitaxy, ion implantation, oxidation/nitridation, rapid thermal processing, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, electrochemical deposition, atomic layer deposition, etching, and selective deposition and removal, as well as metrology and inspection tools. The Applied Global Services segment provides integrated solutions to optimize equipment and fab performance and productivity comprising spares, upgrades, services, remanufactured earlier generation equipment, and factory automation software for semiconductor, display, and other products. The Display and Adjacent Markets segment offers products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays; organic light-emitting diodes; and other display technologies for TVs, monitors, laptops, personal computers, electronic tablets, smart phones, and other consumer-oriented devices. It operates in the United States, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe. The company was incorporated in 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.