POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET – Get Free Report) and MaxLinear (NYSE:MXL – Get Free Report) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.
Profitability
This table compares POET Technologies and MaxLinear’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| POET Technologies | N/A | -269.59% | -195.01% |
| MaxLinear | -28.70% | -4.75% | -3.01% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for POET Technologies and MaxLinear, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| POET Technologies | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| MaxLinear | 0 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 2.36 |
Insider and Institutional Ownership
2.0% of POET Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of MaxLinear shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.6% of MaxLinear shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares POET Technologies and MaxLinear’s 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 | 355.88 | -$20.27 million | ($0.49) | -5.51 |
| MaxLinear | $693.26 million | 1.68 | -$73.15 million | ($1.89) | -7.42 |
POET Technologies has higher earnings, but lower revenue than MaxLinear. MaxLinear is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than POET Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility & Risk
POET Technologies has a beta of 0.29, indicating that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MaxLinear has a beta of 1.84, indicating that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500.
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 MaxLinear
MaxLinear, Inc. provides communications systems-on-chip solutions worldwide. Its products integrate various portions of a high-speed communication system, including radio frequency, high-performance analog, mixed-signal, digital signal processing, security engines, data compression and networking layers, and power management. The company's products are used in various electronic devices, such as radio transceivers and modems for 4G/5G base-station and backhaul infrastructure; optical transceivers targeting hyperscale data centers; Wi-Fi and wireline routers for home networking; broadband modems compliant with data over cable service interface specifications, passive optical fiber standards, and digital subscriber line, as well as power management and interface products. It serves electronics distributors, module makers, original equipment manufacturers, and original design manufacturers through a direct sales force, third-party sales representatives, and a network of distributors. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.
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