Contrasting Hauppauge Digital (OTCMKTS:HAUP) and Vuzix (NASDAQ:VUZI)

Vuzix (NASDAQ:VUZI) and Hauppauge Digital (OTCMKTS:HAUP) 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, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Vuzix and Hauppauge Digital, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vuzix	1	0	1	0	2.00
Hauppauge Digital	0	0	0	0	0.00

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vuzix and Hauppauge Digital”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vuzix	$5.76 million	49.08	-$73.54 million	($0.51)	-6.90
Hauppauge Digital	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Hauppauge Digital has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Vuzix.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

35.9% of Vuzix shares are held by institutional investors. 8.3% of Vuzix shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of Hauppauge Digital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Vuzix and Hauppauge Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vuzix	-707.90%	-113.11%	-101.83%
Hauppauge Digital	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Vuzix has a beta of 1.69, suggesting that its stock price is 69% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hauppauge Digital has a beta of -6.85, suggesting that its stock price is 785% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Vuzix beats Hauppauge Digital on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vuzix

Vuzix Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets smart glasses and augmented reality (AR) technologies and products for the enterprise, medical, defense, and consumer markets. The company’s products include head-mounted smart personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays, and augmented reality, as well as original equipment manufacturer waveguide optical components and display engines. It also provides certified ERP SaaS logistics solution to support hand-held mobile phones and scanners used in logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing applications. It holds approximately 375 patents and patents pending and various IP licenses in the fields of optics, head-mounted displays, and augmented reality Video Eyewear field. It sells its products through resellers, distributors, direct to commercial customers, and online stores, as well as various Vuzix operated web stores in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company was formerly known as Icuiti Corporation and changed its name to Vuzix Corporation in September 2007. Vuzix Corporation was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in West Henrietta, New York.

About Hauppauge Digital

Hauppauge Digital Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets various consumer electronic hardware and software products that link TV and other video delivery technologies to personal computers and mobile devices. The company offers TV receivers and tuners, including Broadway that connects to a TV signal and then transmits that TV signal through a Wi-Fi network or the Internet; digital TV receivers and hybrid analog/digital TV receivers, which enable a PC user to watch digital television in a resizable window on a PC or laptop screen; PCTV systems TV tuner products that allow users to view television programming on their computers; and analog TV tuners. It also provides video recorder products, such as USB-Live2, a standard definition video recorder used to record video tapes and other types of video into a PC; HD PVR 2, a kit for gamers to record high definition videos; HD PVR, a high-definition video recorder for making compressed video recordings, as well as to record old home video tapes into an AVCHD format; and Colossus to record high definition video from a cable TV or satellite set top box. In addition, the company offers other software products comprising WinTV application, a PC based TV watching, pause, and recoding application; WinTV Extend software product, a PC based Internet video server that streams live TV or other video content to remote devices; Impact video capture board for PC based video conferencing and video capture in industrial applications; MediaMVP-HD, a Linux-based digital media device that link TV sets and PCs; and MediaMVP to watch and listen to PC-based videos, music, and pictures on a TV set through a home network, as well as provides an on-TV-screen display of media directory listings. The company sells its products through retailers, PC manufacturers, and distributors in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Hauppauge Digital Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York.