POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) vs. MaxLinear (NYSE:MXL) Critical Survey

POET Technologies (NASDAQ:POET) and MaxLinear (NYSE:MXL) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

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	-42.38%	-12.39%	-7.82%

Earnings & 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	365.11	-$20.27 million	($0.49)	-5.65
MaxLinear	$693.26 million	1.53	-$73.15 million	($1.89)	-6.76

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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets 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

POET Technologies currently has a consensus target price of $7.50, indicating a potential upside of 170.76%. MaxLinear has a consensus target price of $24.70, indicating a potential upside of 93.35%. Given POET Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe POET Technologies is more favorable than MaxLinear.

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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.0% of POET Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of MaxLinear shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of POET Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.6% of MaxLinear shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

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.