Financial Contrast: KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) vs. Syntec Optics (NASDAQ:OPTX)

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) and Syntec Optics (NASDAQ:OPTX) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for KLA and Syntec Optics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KLA	0	8	14	0	2.64
Syntec Optics	0	0	0	0	N/A

KLA presently has a consensus target price of $806.24, suggesting a potential upside of 2.39%. Given KLA’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe KLA is more favorable than Syntec Optics.

Profitability

This table compares KLA and Syntec Optics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KLA	28.15%	103.50%	21.99%
Syntec Optics	N/A	12.52%	3.53%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

86.7% of KLA shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of KLA shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 78.0% of Syntec Optics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

KLA has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Syntec Optics has a beta of -0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 148% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares KLA and Syntec Optics’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KLA	$9.81 billion	10.80	$3.39 billion	$19.09	41.25
Syntec Optics	$29.44 million	2.06	$1.98 million	N/A	N/A

KLA has higher revenue and earnings than Syntec Optics.

Summary

KLA beats Syntec Optics on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KLA

KLA Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB, Display and Component Inspection. The company offers inspection and review tools to identify, locate, characterize, review, and analyze defects on various surfaces of patterned and unpatterned wafers; metrology systems that are used to measure pattern dimensions, film thickness, film stress, layer-to-layer alignment, pattern placement, surface topography, and electro-optical properties for wafers; Wafer defect inspection, review, and metrology systems; reticle inspection and metrology systems; chemical process control equipment; wired and wireless sensor wafers and reticles; and semiconductor software solutions that provide run-time process control, defect excursion identification, process corrections, and defect classification to accelerate yield learning rates and reduce production risk. It also provides etch, plasma dicing, deposition, and other wafer processing technologies and solutions for the semiconductor and microelectronics industry. In addition, the company offers direct imaging, inspection, optical shaping, inkjet and additive printing, UV laser drilling and computer-aided manufacturing and engineering solutions for the PCB market; inspection and electrical testing systems to identify and classify defects, as well as systems to repair defects for the display market; and inspection and metrology systems for quality control and yield improvement in advanced and traditional semiconductor packaging markets. The company was formerly known as KLA-Tencor Corporation and changed its name to KLA Corporation in July 2019. KLA Corporation was incorporated in 1975 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.

About Syntec Optics

Syntec Optics Holdings, Inc. manufactures and supplies integrated optics for biomedical, defense and military, consumer, and other applications. It offers camera modules; tool design, design for manufacturing, optical and opto-mechanical design, and moldflow analysis; SPDT optics, such as freedom optics, microlens arrays, spheres and aspheres, diffractives, SPDT materials, and optical tooling; replicative molding, that includes polymer and glass molding, and molded production materials; thin film coating and coating curve materials; and precision machining and precision machining materials. The company also provides clean room assembly, such as opto mechanical, opto electronic, and integrated photonics; infrared optics, microlens arrays, software development, and optical metrology, and catalog optics services. In addition, it offers driverless cars, integrated photonics, robotics, sensors, VR and AR, machine vision, facial imagining, heads up display, finger print scanners, and laser scanners technology for consumers; night vision goggles, missile laser guides, biometrics, infrared and thermal imaging, ordnance optics, head mounted displays, 2D and 3D scanners, humvee lighting , laser targeting, protective domes and windows, and lidar technologies for defense and miliary; and medical diagnostic, microfluidics, surgical components and systems, and medical sensing technology for medical sectors. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in Rochester, New York.