Analyzing AppTech Payments (NASDAQ:APCX) & PDF Solutions (NASDAQ:PDFS)

PDF Solutions (NASDAQ:PDFS) and AppTech Payments (NASDAQ:APCX) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PDF Solutions	0	0	2	0	3.00
AppTech Payments	0	0	0	0	0.00

PDF Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $41.00, indicating a potential upside of 31.79%. Given PDF Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe PDF Solutions is more favorable than AppTech Payments.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

79.5% of PDF Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.2% of AppTech Payments shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.1% of PDF Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of AppTech Payments shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares PDF Solutions and AppTech Payments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PDF Solutions	2.58%	3.24%	2.54%
AppTech Payments	-3,119.45%	-398.98%	-153.45%

Risk & Volatility

PDF Solutions has a beta of 1.49, suggesting that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AppTech Payments has a beta of 0.68, suggesting that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares PDF Solutions and AppTech Payments”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PDF Solutions	$165.84 million	7.27	$3.11 million	$0.11	282.84
AppTech Payments	$500,000.00	26.27	-$18.51 million	($0.48)	-0.99

PDF Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than AppTech Payments. AppTech Payments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PDF Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

PDF Solutions beats AppTech Payments on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About AppTech Payments

AppTech Payments Corp., a financial technology company, provides electronic payment processing technologies and merchant services in the United States. Its merchant transaction services offer processing payments for credit and debit cards through point-of-sale equipment, e-commerce gateways, periodic automatic clearing house payments, and gift and loyalty programs. The company also offers integrated solutions for frictionless digital and mobile payment acceptance, as well as multi-use case, multi-channel, API-driven, and account-based issuer processing for card, digital tokens, and payment transfer transaction services; hosted ecommerce checkout, a flexible payment gateway; and text payment technology, alternative payment methods (APMs), and contactless payments. In addition, it provides FinZeo, a fintech platform. The company was formerly known as AppTech Corp. AppTech Payments Corp. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.