Critical Survey: Hesai Group (NASDAQ:HSAI) versus Microvision (NASDAQ:MVIS)

Hesai Group (NASDAQ:HSAI) and Microvision (NASDAQ:MVIS) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Hesai Group and Microvision, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hesai Group	0	1	2	1	3.00
Microvision	1	1	0	0	1.50

Hesai Group presently has a consensus price target of $23.50, suggesting a potential upside of 78.98%. Microvision has a consensus price target of $45.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3,713.56%. Given Microvision’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Microvision is more favorable than Hesai Group.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Hesai Group and Microvision”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hesai Group	$432.94 million	4.77	$62.33 million	$0.41	32.02
Microvision	$1.21 million	23.20	-$94.98 million	($5.41)	-0.22

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

Profitability

This table compares Hesai Group and Microvision’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hesai Group	14.77%	5.52%	4.47%
Microvision	-3,976.67%	-221.31%	-100.90%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

48.5% of Hesai Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.9% of Microvision shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Microvision shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Hesai Group has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its share price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Microvision has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Hesai Group beats Microvision on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hesai Group

Hesai Group, through with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of three-dimensional light detection and ranging solutions (LiDAR). Its LiDAR products are used in passenger and commercial vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems; autonomous passenger and freight mobility services; and other applications, such as delivery robots, street sweeping robots, and logistics robots in restricted areas. Hesai Group was founded in 2014 and is based in Shanghai, China.

About Microvision

MicroVision, Inc. develops and sells lidar sensors and software used in automotive safety and autonomous driving applications. It offers a suite of light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors and perception; and validation software for automotive OEMs, advanced driver-assistance systems, and autonomous vehicle applications, as well as non-automotive applications including industrial, robotics, and smart infrastructure. The company also provides MAVIN DR, a dynamic view lidar system, which combines short, medium, and long range sense and field of view into one form; lidar sensors under the MOVIA brand name; and MOSAIK, a software that automates manual data classification or annotation process. In addition, it provides engineering services for its hardware and software products. The company markets its products to customers directly, through trade shows, and its website. MicroVision, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.