Critical Analysis: Ichor (NASDAQ:ICHR) vs. Melexis (OTCMKTS:MLXSF)

Melexis (OTCMKTS:MLXSF) and Ichor (NASDAQ:ICHR) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

21.1% of Melexis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.8% of Ichor shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Ichor shares are owned 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Melexis and Ichor, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Melexis	0	2	0	0	2.00
Ichor	1	2	6	0	2.56

Ichor has a consensus price target of $87.00, suggesting a potential upside of 42.13%. Given Ichor’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ichor is more favorable than Melexis.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Melexis and Ichor”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Melexis	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Ichor	$947.65 million	2.42	-$52.78 million	($1.17)	-52.32

Melexis has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Ichor.

Profitability

This table compares Melexis and Ichor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Melexis	N/A	N/A	N/A
Ichor	-3.97%	0.47%	0.33%

Summary

Ichor beats Melexis on 8 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Melexis

Melexis NV designs, develops, tests, and markets advanced integrated semiconductor devices primarily for the automotive industry in Europe, the Middle-East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and North and Latin America. The company provides magnetic position, current, latch and switch, inductive position, speed, pressure, tire monitoring, temperature, and optical sensors ICs and time-of-flight; embedded motor, smart, fan and pump, smart LED, and pre-driver ICs; embedded lighting; and LIN transceiver, CAN transceiver, and RFID transceivers. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Ieper, Belgium. Melexis NV is a subsidiary of Xtrion N.V.

About Ichor

Ichor Holdings, Ltd. engages in the design, engineering, and manufacture of fluid delivery subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment in the United States and internationally. It primarily offers gas and chemical delivery systems and subsystems that are used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. The company's gas delivery subsystems deliver, monitor, and control gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as etch and deposition; and chemical delivery subsystems blend and dispense the reactive liquid chemistries used in semiconductor manufacturing processes comprising chemical-mechanical planarization, electroplating, and cleaning. In addition, it manufactures precision machined components, weldments, electron beam, laser-welded components, precision vacuum and hydrogen brazing, surface treatment technologies, and other proprietary products. The company primarily markets its products to equipment OEMs in the semiconductor equipment market in Japan. Ichor Holdings, Ltd. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.