Critical Analysis: Peraso (NASDAQ:PRSO) & United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC)

Peraso (NASDAQ:PRSO) and United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Peraso and United Microelectronics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peraso	-85.63%	-223.38%	-153.27%
United Microelectronics	31.96%	20.12%	13.53%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Peraso and United Microelectronics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peraso	1	0	2	0	2.33
United Microelectronics	3	3	2	0	1.88

Peraso currently has a consensus target price of $3.08, suggesting a potential upside of 780.20%. United Microelectronics has a consensus target price of $36.79, suggesting a potential upside of 175.29%. Given Peraso’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Peraso is more favorable than United Microelectronics.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Peraso and United Microelectronics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peraso	$8.37 million	0.63	-$4.75 million	($0.68)	-0.52
United Microelectronics	$265.82 billion	0.13	$1.29 billion	$1.08	12.37

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

Volatility and Risk

Peraso has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Microelectronics has a beta of 1.76, indicating that its stock price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.6% of Peraso shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.1% of United Microelectronics shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Peraso shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of United Microelectronics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

United Microelectronics beats Peraso on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Peraso

Peraso Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, develops, markets, and sells semiconductor devices and modules. The company's products include millimeter wavelength (mmWave) ICs, including baseband IC, various mmWave radio frequency, integrated circuits, as well as associated antenna technology; and mmWave antenna modules. It also provides accelerator engine products, comprising bandwidth engine for high-performance applications where throughput is critical; and quad partition rate, which allows for parallel accesses to multiple partitions of the memory simultaneously. Its mmWave products are used for various applications, such as multi-gigabit point-to-point (PtMP) wireless links; and fixed wireless access in the 5G operating bands, as well as consumer applications, such as wireless video streaming, and untethered augmented reality and virtual reality. The company also licenses intellectual property, as well as offers non-recurring engineering services. It markets its products through direct sales personnel, as well as sells representatives and distributors. The company was formerly knowns as MoSys, Inc. and changed its name to Peraso Inc. in December 2021. Peraso Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is based in San Jose, California.

About United Microelectronics

United Microelectronics Corporation operates as a semiconductor wafer foundry in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides circuit design, mask tooling, wafer fabrication, and assembly and testing services. It serves fabless design companies and integrated device manufacturers. United Microelectronics Corporation was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.