Reviewing Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) & Astera Labs (NASDAQ:ALAB)

Astera Labs (NASDAQ:ALAB) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Astera Labs and Intel”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Astera Labs	$852.53 million	69.64	$219.13 million	$2.02	169.41
Intel	$52.85 billion	9.99	-$267.00 million	($2.11)	-49.62

Astera Labs has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Intel. Intel is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Astera Labs, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Astera Labs and Intel’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Astera Labs	30.74%	19.24%	17.27%
Intel	-19.79%	2.62%	1.50%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

60.5% of Astera Labs shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.5% of Intel shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.4% of Astera Labs shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Intel shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Astera Labs has a beta of 3.68, meaning that its stock price is 268% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Intel has a beta of 2.22, meaning that its stock price is 122% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Astera Labs and Intel, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Astera Labs	0	10	11	0	2.52
Intel	3	26	20	1	2.38

Astera Labs currently has a consensus target price of $348.33, suggesting a potential upside of 1.79%. Intel has a consensus target price of $109.06, suggesting a potential upside of 4.16%. Given Intel’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Intel is more favorable than Astera Labs.

Summary

Astera Labs beats Intel on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Astera Labs

Astera Labs, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells semiconductor-based connectivity solutions for cloud and AI infrastructure. Its Intelligent Connectivity Platform is comprised of a portfolio of data, network, and memory connectivity products, which are built on a unifying software-defined architecture that enables customers to deploy and operate high performance cloud and AI infrastructure at scale. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Santa Clara, California.

About Intel

Intel Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells computing and related products and services worldwide. It operates through Client Computing Group, Data Center and AI, Network and Edge, Mobileye, and Intel Foundry Services segments. The company's products portfolio comprises central processing units and chipsets, system-on-chips (SoCs), and multichip packages; mobile and desktop processors; hardware products comprising graphics processing units (GPUs), domain-specific accelerators, and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); and memory and storage, connectivity and networking, and other semiconductor products. It also offers silicon devices and software products; and optimization solutions for workloads, such as AI, cryptography, security, storage, networking, and leverages various features supporting diverse compute environments. In addition, the company develops and deploys advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and autonomous driving technologies and solutions; and provides advanced process technologies backed by an ecosystem of IP, EDA, and design services, as well as systems of chips, including advanced packaging technologies, software and accelerate bring-up, and integration of chips and driving standards. Further, it delivers and deploys intelligent edge platforms that allow developers to achieve agility and drive automation using AI for efficient operations with data integrity, as well as provides hardware and software platforms, tools, and ecosystem partnerships for digital transformation from the cloud to edge. The company serves original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers, cloud service providers, and other manufacturers and service providers. It has a strategic agreement with Synopsys, Inc. to develop EDA and IP solutions; and ARM that enables chip designers to build optimized compute SoCs on the Intel 18A process. Intel Corporation was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.