Head-To-Head Contrast: Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) and Ideal Power (NASDAQ:IPWR)

Ideal Power (NASDAQ:IPWR) and Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) are both industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ideal Power and Tower Semiconductor”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ideal Power	$200,000.00	266.10	-$9.95 million	($1.40)	-4.66
Tower Semiconductor	$1.42 billion	3.73	$518.49 million	$1.85	25.86

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

16.4% of Ideal Power shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.5% of Tower Semiconductor shares are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of Ideal Power shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Tower Semiconductor shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Ideal Power has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tower Semiconductor has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Ideal Power and Tower Semiconductor, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ideal Power	0	0	1	0	3.00
Tower Semiconductor	0	0	3	0	3.00

Ideal Power currently has a consensus price target of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 114.40%. Tower Semiconductor has a consensus price target of $58.33, indicating a potential upside of 21.93%. Given Ideal Power’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Ideal Power is more favorable than Tower Semiconductor.

Profitability

This table compares Ideal Power and Tower Semiconductor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ideal Power	-7,152.45%	-55.69%	-49.80%
Tower Semiconductor	14.75%	8.22%	6.91%

Summary

Tower Semiconductor beats Ideal Power on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ideal Power

Ideal Power Inc. focuses on the development and commercialization of its bidirectional bipolar junction TRANsistor solid-state switch technology. It also offers SymCool Power Module designed to meet low conduction loss needs of the solid-state circuit breaker market. The company serves electric and hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging, renewable energy and energy storage system power converters, uninterruptible power supplies for data centers, industrial motor drives, solid-state circuit breakers, distribution and transmission switches and controls, and other industrial and military markets. The company was formerly known as Ideal Power Converters Inc. and changed its name to Ideal Power Inc. in July 2013. Ideal Power Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor Ltd., an independent semiconductor foundry, focus on specialty process technologies to manufacture analog intensive mixed-signal semiconductor devices in Israel, the United States, Japan, Europe, and internationally. It provides various customizable process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, integrated power management, and MEMS. The Company also provides design enablement platform for quick and accurate design cycle, as well as transfer optimization and development process services to integrated device manufacturers and fabless companies. It serves various markets, such as consumer electronics, personal computers, communications, automotive, industrial, aerospace, military, and medical device products. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Migdal Haemek, Israel.