Comparing Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) & Syntec Optics (NASDAQ:OPTX)

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) and Syntec Optics (NASDAQ:OPTX) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Littelfuse and Syntec Optics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Littelfuse	0	1	4	1	3.00
Syntec Optics	1	0	0	0	1.00

Littelfuse presently has a consensus target price of $465.83, suggesting a potential upside of 20.47%. Given Littelfuse’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Littelfuse is more favorable than Syntec Optics.

Profitability

This table compares Littelfuse and Syntec Optics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Littelfuse	1.37%	15.86%	10.16%
Syntec Optics	-8.26%	-16.50%	-8.68%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.1% of Littelfuse shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Littelfuse shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Syntec Optics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Littelfuse and Syntec Optics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Littelfuse	$2.39 billion	4.12	-$71.70 million	$1.22	316.96
Syntec Optics	$28.08 million	6.55	-$1.79 million	($0.06)	-76.13

Syntec Optics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Littelfuse. Syntec Optics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Littelfuse, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Littelfuse has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its stock price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Syntec Optics has a beta of -0.71, suggesting that its stock price is 171% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Littelfuse beats Syntec Optics on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Littelfuse

Littelfuse, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components, modules, and subassemblies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, electromechanical switches and interconnect solutions, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, varistors, reed switch based magnetic sensing products, and gas discharge tubes; and discrete transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diodes, TVS diode arrays, protection and switching thyristors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors. This segment serves industrial motor drives and power conversion, automotive electronics, electric vehicle and related charging infrastructure, aerospace, power supplies, data centers, telecommunications, medical devices, alternative energy, building and home automation, appliances, and mobile electronics markets. The Transportation segment provides blade, resettable, and high-current and high-voltage fuses, as well as battery cable protectors; fuses, switches, relays, circuit breakers, and power distribution modules; and sensor products. This segment serves heavy-duty truck, construction, agriculture, material handling, and marine. The Industrial segment offers industrial fuses, protection relays, contactors, transformers, residual current devices, ground fault circuit interrupters, residual current monitors, arc fault detection devices, and temperature sensors for use in renewable energy and energy storage systems, electric vehicle infrastructure, HVAC systems, industrial safety, non-residential construction, MRO, mining, and factory automation. It sells its products through distributors, direct sales force, and manufacturers' representatives. Littelfuse, Inc. was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Syntec Optics

Syntec Optics Holdings, Inc. manufactures and supplies integrated optics for biomedical, defense and military, consumer, and other applications. It offers camera modules; tool design, design for manufacturing, optical and opto-mechanical design, and moldflow analysis; SPDT optics, such as freedom optics, microlens arrays, spheres and aspheres, diffractives, SPDT materials, and optical tooling; replicative molding, that includes polymer and glass molding, and molded production materials; thin film coating and coating curve materials; and precision machining and precision machining materials. The company also provides clean room assembly, such as opto mechanical, opto electronic, and integrated photonics; infrared optics, microlens arrays, software development, and optical metrology, and catalog optics services. In addition, it offers driverless cars, integrated photonics, robotics, sensors, VR and AR, machine vision, facial imagining, heads up display, finger print scanners, and laser scanners technology for consumers; night vision goggles, missile laser guides, biometrics, infrared and thermal imaging, ordnance optics, head mounted displays, 2D and 3D scanners, humvee lighting , laser targeting, protective domes and windows, and lidar technologies for defense and miliary; and medical diagnostic, microfluidics, surgical components and systems, and medical sensing technology for medical sectors. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in Rochester, New York.