Critical Survey: Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV) versus PENG (NASDAQ:PENG)

Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV) and PENG (NASDAQ:PENG) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

Viavi Solutions has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PENG has a beta of 1.7, meaning that its stock price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Viavi Solutions and PENG, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Viavi Solutions	0	5	2	1	2.50
PENG	0	0	4	0	3.00

Viavi Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $10.42, suggesting a potential upside of 1.82%. PENG has a consensus price target of $23.75, suggesting a potential upside of 38.73%. Given PENG’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe PENG is more favorable than Viavi Solutions.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.5% of Viavi Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Viavi Solutions shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of PENG shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Viavi Solutions and PENG”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Viavi Solutions	$990.70 million	2.29	-$25.80 million	($0.17)	-60.18
PENG	$1.17 billion	0.78	-$52.47 million	($1.00)	-17.12

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

Profitability

This table compares Viavi Solutions and PENG’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Viavi Solutions	-3.78%	2.22%	0.88%
PENG	-4.48%	8.05%	2.14%

Summary

PENG beats Viavi Solutions on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Viavi Solutions

Viavi Solutions Inc. provides network test, monitoring, and assurance solutions for communications service providers, hyperscalers, network equipment manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, government, and avionics customers in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through three segments: Network Enablement (NE), Service Enablement (SE), and Optical Security and Performance Products (OSP). The NE segment offers testing solutions that access the network to perform build-out and maintenance tasks. Its solutions include instruments, software, and services to design, build, activate, certify, troubleshoot, and optimize networks; and test and measurement instrumentation for communication and safety. It also offers support and professional services, such as repair, calibration, software support, and technical assistance for the products; and system integration projects, including project management, installation, and implementation, as well as product and technology training, and consulting services. The SE segment provides embedded systems and enterprise performance management solutions for communication service providers, enterprises, and cloud operators with visibility into network, service, and application data. Its solutions include instruments, microprobes, and software, which monitor, collect, and analyze network data to reveal the actual customer experience and to identify opportunities for new revenue streams and network optimization. The OSP segment offers optical products for anti-counterfeiting, consumer and industrial, government, automotive, and industrial markets. The company was formerly known as JDS Uniphase Corporation. Viavi Solutions Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona.

About PENG

SMART Global Holdings, Inc., a memory-focused company, engages in the designing and development of enterprise solutions in the United States, China, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Memory Solutions, Intelligent Platform Solutions, and LED Solutions segments. The company offers dynamic random access memory modules, solid-state and flash storage, and other advanced memory solutions for networking and telecom, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications; and supply chain services including procurement, logistics, inventory management, temporary warehousing, programming, kitting, and packaging services. It also provides Penguin Computing that focus on technical computing for core and cloud environments through HPC and AI solutions; and Penguin Edge, an edge computing solution for embedded and wireless applications including high-performance products for government, health care, industrial, and telecommunications applications. In addition, the company offers Stratus, which provides simplified, protected, and autonomous fault tolerant computing solutions in the data center and at the Edge through hardware and software services; and leading-edge solutions to education, energy, financial services, government, hyperscale, and manufacturing markets. Further, it provides LED-based products comprising blue and green LED chips based on gallium nitride, and related materials under Cree LED brand; and surface mount devices under the Cree LED XLamp and J Series brand. The company sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, enterprise, government and other end customers through direct sales force, e-commerce, customer service representatives, on-site field application engineers, independent sales representatives, distributors, integrators, and resellers. SMART Global Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.