Financial Comparison: nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) & Intchains Group (NASDAQ:ICG)

nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) and Intchains Group (NASDAQ:ICG) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for nLIGHT and Intchains Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
nLIGHT	0	0	2	0	3.00
Intchains Group	0	0	1	0	3.00

nLIGHT currently has a consensus target price of $16.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.89%. Intchains Group has a consensus target price of $10.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.38%. Given nLIGHT’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe nLIGHT is more favorable than Intchains Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

83.9% of nLIGHT shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.1% of nLIGHT 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares nLIGHT and Intchains Group’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
nLIGHT	$209.92 million	2.71	-$41.67 million	($1.02)	-11.72
Intchains Group	$11.58 million	38.81	-$3.78 million	($0.10)	-74.98

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

Volatility and Risk

nLIGHT has a beta of 2.39, suggesting that its share price is 139% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Intchains Group has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares nLIGHT and Intchains Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
nLIGHT	-23.81%	-17.86%	-14.69%
Intchains Group	-56.73%	-4.84%	-4.75%

Summary

nLIGHT beats Intchains Group on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About nLIGHT

nLIGHT, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor and fiber lasers for industrial, microfabrication, and aerospace and defense applications. The company operates in two segments, Laser Products and Advanced Development. It offers semiconductor lasers with various ranges of power levels, wavelengths, and output fiber sizes; and programmable and serviceable fiber lasers for use in industrial and aerospace and defense applications. The company also provides laser sensors, including light detection and ranging technologies for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications; and fiber amplifiers, beam combination, and control systems for use in high-energy laser systems in directed energy applications. It sells its products through direct sales force in the United States, China, South Korea, and European countries, as well as through independent sales representatives and distributors in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. The company was formerly known as nLight Photonics Corporation and changed its name to nLIGHT, Inc. in January 2016. nLIGHT, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Camas, Washington.

About Intchains Group

Intchains Group Limited designs and sells application-specific integrated circuit chips for blockchain applications in the People's Republic of China. The company also offers ancillary software, hardware, and other products. It serves distributors. Intchains Group Limited was founded in 2017 and is based in Pudong, China.