Contrasting Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) and Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) are both technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.8% of Micron Technology shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Micron Technology shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Penguin Solutions shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Micron Technology has a beta of 2.22, indicating that its share price is 122% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Penguin Solutions has a beta of 2.86, indicating that its share price is 186% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Micron Technology and Penguin Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Micron Technology	0	4	41	1	2.93
Penguin Solutions	1	1	7	1	2.80

Micron Technology currently has a consensus price target of $1,407.88, suggesting a potential upside of 60.43%. Penguin Solutions has a consensus price target of $87.50, suggesting a potential upside of 63.83%. Given Penguin Solutions’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Penguin Solutions is more favorable than Micron Technology.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Micron Technology and Penguin Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Micron Technology	$133.19 billion	7.45	$84.97 billion	$74.21	11.83
Penguin Solutions	$1.73 billion	1.86	$180.62 million	$2.59	20.62

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

Profitability

This table compares Micron Technology and Penguin Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Micron Technology	63.80%	92.62%	66.29%
Penguin Solutions	10.43%	36.71%	7.95%

Summary

Micron Technology beats Penguin Solutions on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Micron Technology

Micron Technology, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells memory and storage products worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Compute and Networking Business Unit, Mobile Business Unit, Embedded Business Unit, and Storage Business Unit. It provides memory and storage technologies comprising dynamic random access memory semiconductor devices with low latency that provide high-speed data retrieval; non-volatile and re-writeable semiconductor storage devices; and non-volatile re-writable semiconductor memory devices that provide fast read speeds under the Micron and Crucial brands, as well as through private labels. The company offers memory products for the cloud server, enterprise, client, graphics, networking, industrial, and automotive markets, as well as for smartphone and other mobile-device markets; SSDs and component-level solutions for the enterprise and cloud, client, and consumer storage markets; discrete storage products in component and wafers; and memory and storage products for the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. It markets its products through its direct sales force, independent sales representatives, distributors, and retailers; and web-based customer direct sales channel, as well as through channel and distribution partners. Micron Technology, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

About Penguin Solutions

Penguin Solutions, Inc. engages in the designing and development of enterprise solutions worldwide. It operates through three segments: Advanced Computing, Integrated Memory, and Optimized LED. It offers dynamic random access memory modules, solid-state and flash storage, and other advanced integrated memory solutions for networking and telecom, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications; and supply chain services, including procurement, logistics, inventory management, temporary warehousing, programming, kitting, and packaging services. The company also provides Penguin Computing that focus on technical computing for core and cloud environments through high-performance computing and AI solutions; and Penguin Edge, an edge computing solution for embedded and wireless applications, such as high-performance products for government, health care, manufacturing, and telecommunications applications. In addition, it offers Stratus, which provides simplified, protected, and autonomous fault tolerant computing solutions in the data center and at the Edge through hardware and software services; and solutions to education, energy, financial services, government, hyperscale, and manufacturing markets. Further, the company provides LED chip products comprising blue and green LED chips based on gallium nitride, and related materials under Cree LED brand; and surface mount devices under the Cree LED XLamp and J Series brands. It sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, enterprise, government and other end customers through direct sales force, e-commerce, customer service representatives, on-site field application engineers, independent sales representatives, distributors, integrators, and resellers. The company was formerly known as SMART Global Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Penguin Solutions, Inc. in October 2024. Penguin Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.