Contrasting QuickLogic (NASDAQ:QUIK) & ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR)

QuickLogic (NASDAQ:QUIK) and ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for QuickLogic and ACM Research, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
QuickLogic	1	1	2	0	2.25
ACM Research	0	1	4	1	3.00

QuickLogic currently has a consensus target price of $21.00, indicating a potential upside of 82.77%. ACM Research has a consensus target price of $122.75, indicating a potential upside of 62.91%. Given QuickLogic’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe QuickLogic is more favorable than ACM Research.

Profitability

This table compares QuickLogic and ACM Research’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
QuickLogic	-80.18%	-45.22%	-27.93%
ACM Research	14.48%	4.08%	2.80%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

31.5% of QuickLogic shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.7% of ACM Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.2% of QuickLogic shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 24.4% of ACM Research shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares QuickLogic and ACM Research”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
QuickLogic	$13.77 million	15.29	-$14.82 million	($0.77)	-14.92
ACM Research	$901.31 million	5.41	$94.08 million	$2.10	35.88

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

Volatility & Risk

QuickLogic has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ACM Research has a beta of 2.09, meaning that its share price is 109% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ACM Research beats QuickLogic on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About QuickLogic

QuickLogic Corporation operates as a fabless semiconductor company in the United States. The company offers embedded FPGA intellectual property, low power, multicore semiconductor system-on-chips, discrete FPGAs, and AI software; and end-to-end artificial intelligence/machine learning solution with accurate sensor algorithms using AI technology. It provides various platforms, such as software tools and eFPGA IP enables the adoption of AI, voice, and sensor processing across aerospace, and defense, consumer/industrial IOT, and consumer electronics markets. In addition, the company engages in the eFPGA IP Licensing business consisting of development and integration of eFPGA technology into custom semiconductor solutions. Further, the company offers silicon products, such as EOS, QuickAI, ArcticLink III, PolarPro 3, PolarPro II, PolarPro, and Eclipse II products; and PASIC 3 and QuickRAM, as well as programming hardware and design software services. The company markets and sells its products to defense industrial base contractors, U.S. government entities, system OEMs, and fabless semiconductor companies through a network of sales managers and distributors in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It has a strategic partnership with YorChip to develop low-power unified chiplet interconnect express FPGA chiplets. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About ACM Research

ACM Research, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells single-wafer wet cleaning equipment for enhancing the manufacturing process and yield for integrated chips worldwide. It offers space alternated phase shift technology for flat and patterned wafer surfaces, which employs alternating phases of megasonic waves to deliver megasonic energy in a uniform manner on a microscopic level; timely energized bubble oscillation technology for patterned wafer surfaces at advanced process nodes, which provides cleaning for 2D and 3D patterned wafers; Tahoe technology for delivering cleaning performance using less sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide; and electro-chemical plating technology for advanced metal plating. The company markets and sells its products under the SAPS, TEBO, ULTRA C, ULTRA Fn, Ultra ECP, Ultra ECP map, and Ultra ECP ap trademarks through direct sales force and third-party representatives. ACM Research, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.