POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) vs. United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) Critical Analysis

POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) and United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares POET Technologies and United Microelectronics’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
POET Technologies	$470,000.00	256.60	-$20.27 million	($0.51)	-4.90
United Microelectronics	$222.53 billion	0.09	$1.96 billion	$0.70	11.11

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

2.0% of POET Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.1% of United Microelectronics shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of United Microelectronics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
POET Technologies	N/A	-207.55%	-160.39%
United Microelectronics	24.79%	15.82%	9.88%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for POET Technologies and United Microelectronics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
POET Technologies	0	0	1	0	3.00
United Microelectronics	0	2	1	0	2.33

POET Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $7.50, suggesting a potential upside of 200.00%. United Microelectronics has a consensus target price of $7.68, suggesting a potential downside of 1.29%. Given POET Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe POET Technologies is more favorable than United Microelectronics.

Risk and Volatility

POET Technologies has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Microelectronics has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

United Microelectronics beats POET Technologies on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About POET Technologies

POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and China. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, optical coherence tomography for medical devices, and virtual reality systems markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About United Microelectronics

United Microelectronics Corporation operates as a semiconductor wafer foundry in Taiwan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, 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. The company was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.