Reviewing Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) and Bel Fuse (NASDAQ:BELFB)

Yaskawa Electric (OTCMKTS:YASKY) and Bel Fuse (NASDAQ:BELFB) are both mid-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Yaskawa Electric has a beta of 1.51, suggesting that its share price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bel Fuse has a beta of 1.67, suggesting that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and Bel Fuse’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yaskawa Electric	6.11%	7.00%	4.20%
Bel Fuse	7.21%	9.75%	5.23%

Dividends

Yaskawa Electric pays an annual dividend of $0.55 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Bel Fuse pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Yaskawa Electric pays out 32.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bel Fuse pays out 6.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Yaskawa Electric and Bel Fuse, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yaskawa Electric	0	1	2	3	3.33
Bel Fuse	1	1	7	0	2.67

Bel Fuse has a consensus price target of $324.00, indicating a potential upside of 25.61%. Given Bel Fuse’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Bel Fuse is more favorable than Yaskawa Electric.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

58.4% of Bel Fuse shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.4% of Bel Fuse shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Yaskawa Electric and Bel Fuse”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Yaskawa Electric	$3.62 billion	2.23	$236.12 million	$1.70	36.65
Bel Fuse	$675.46 million	5.51	$61.54 million	$4.14	62.30

Yaskawa Electric has higher revenue and earnings than Bel Fuse. Yaskawa Electric is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bel Fuse, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Bel Fuse beats Yaskawa Electric on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Yaskawa Electric

YASKAWA Electric Corporation engages in motion control, robotics, system engineering, and other businesses worldwide. It manufactures and sells various AC drives, including general purpose AC drives, specific purpose AC drives, AC Drive for systems, regenerative energy saving units, and PM motors for use in household appliances, such as air conditioners and refrigerators; social infrastructures comprising elevators, escalators, trains, cranes, fans, and pumps; and factories that manufacture printing machinery, textile machinery, rubber machinery, and other materials. The company also offers rotary servo motors, direct drive servo motors, linear motors/linear sliders, machine controllers, positioning sensor encoders, and servo amplifiers for use in industrial robots, semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, machine tools, flat panel display manufacturing equipment, and metal working machines; and arc and spot welding, handling/assembling, collaborative, biomedical, palletizing, press handling, sealing/cutting/laser machining, deburring, painting, glass substrates transfer, and semiconductor wafer transfer robots for use in semiconductor wafer conveyance, arc welding, spot welding, handling, assembly, and palletizing applications. In addition, it provides industrial system electrical products, such as medium-voltage AC drives, system use AC drives, and system controllers for use in iron and steel systems, water and wastewater treatment, crane, and paper-making/film/port cargo handling/fiber/printing applications. Further, the company offers equipment for energy saving and creation comprising PV inverters, systems for large wind turbines, control equipment for small-scale power generation, and motor drive systems for use in photovoltaic power generation, large-scale wind power generation, small-scale power generation, and electric vehicles. The company was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Kitakyushu, Japan.

About Bel Fuse

Bel Fuse Inc. designs, manufactures, markets, and sells products that power, protect, and connect electronic circuits. The company’s products are used in the networking, telecommunications, computing, general industrial, high-speed data transmission, military, commercial aerospace, transportation, and e-Mobility industries. It provides power solutions and protection products, including front-end power supplies, board-mount power products, industrial and transportation power products, external power products, and circuit protection products. The company also offers connectivity solutions, such as expanded beam fiber optic connectors, cable assemblies, and active optical devices; copper-based connectors/cable assemblies; radio frequency connectors, cable assemblies, microwave devices, and low loss cables; and ethernet, I/O, and industrial and power connectivity products. In addition, it provides magnetic solutions comprising integrated connector modules, power transformers, SMD power inductors and SMPS transformers, and ethernet discrete components. The company sells its products through direct strategic account managers, regional sales managers working with independent sales representative organizations, and authorized distributors in the United States, the People’s Republic of China, Macao, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Germany, India, Switzerland, and internationally. Bel Fuse Inc. was incorporated in 1949 and is headquartered in West Orange, New Jersey.