Comparing GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS) & Himax Technologies (NASDAQ:HIMX)

GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS) and Himax Technologies (NASDAQ:HIMX) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for GlobalFoundries and Himax Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GlobalFoundries	1	11	8	0	2.35
Himax Technologies	0	3	0	0	2.00

GlobalFoundries presently has a consensus target price of $69.88, indicating a potential downside of 12.61%. Himax Technologies has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential downside of 61.11%. Given GlobalFoundries’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe GlobalFoundries is more favorable than Himax Technologies.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

69.8% of Himax Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 31.5% of Himax Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

GlobalFoundries has a beta of 1.71, indicating that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Himax Technologies has a beta of 2.03, indicating that its stock price is 103% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares GlobalFoundries and Himax Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GlobalFoundries	11.40%	6.85%	4.76%
Himax Technologies	3.91%	3.57%	1.86%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares GlobalFoundries and Himax Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GlobalFoundries	$6.79 billion	6.55	$885.00 million	$1.39	57.53
Himax Technologies	$832.17 million	4.31	$43.94 million	$0.20	102.85

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

Summary

GlobalFoundries beats Himax Technologies on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GlobalFoundries

GlobalFoundries Inc., a semiconductor foundry, provides range of mainstream wafer fabrication services and technologies worldwide. It manufactures various semiconductor devices, including microprocessors, mobile application processors, baseband processors, network processors, radio frequency modems, microcontrollers, and power management units. GlobalFoundries Inc. has a strategic partnership with Efficient Computer to develop high-performance computer processors. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Malta, New York.

About Himax Technologies

Himax Technologies, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, provides display imaging processing technologies in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, Europe, and the United States. The company operates in two segments, Driver IC and Non-Driver Products. It offers display driver integrated circuits (ICs) and timing controllers that are used in televisions, PC monitors, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, automotive, ePaper devices, industrial displays, and other products. The company also provides automotive IC solutions, including traditional driver ICs; advanced in-cell touch and display driver integration; large touch and display driver integration; and local dimming timing controllers, as well as active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) solutions, including AMOLED drivers, timing controllers, and touch controller ICs. In addition, it offers application specific IC services; liquid crystal on silicon and micro-electro mechanical system products; Power ICs; complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensor products; wafer level optics products; 3D sensing products; and ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing products. The company markets its display drivers to panel manufacturers, mobile device module manufacturers, and manufacturers of end-use products. Himax Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Tainan City, Taiwan.