Ceva (NASDAQ:CEVA) versus Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) Critical Contrast

Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) and Ceva (NASDAQ:CEVA) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Impinj and Ceva’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Impinj	-3.00%	8.49%	3.11%
Ceva	-9.71%	-3.15%	-2.75%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Impinj and Ceva, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Impinj	2	2	5	0	2.33
Ceva	1	0	7	0	2.75

Impinj presently has a consensus price target of $167.63, suggesting a potential upside of 66.87%. Ceva has a consensus price target of $30.29, suggesting a potential upside of 54.20%. Given Impinj’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Impinj is more favorable than Ceva.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.4% of Ceva shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.4% of Impinj shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Ceva shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Impinj has a beta of 1.67, meaning that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ceva has a beta of 1.53, meaning that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Impinj and Ceva”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Impinj	$361.08 million	8.41	-$10.85 million	($0.39)	-257.56
Ceva	$109.60 million	4.97	-$10.64 million	($0.43)	-45.67

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

Summary

Impinj beats Ceva on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Impinj

Impinj, Inc. operates a cloud connectivity platform in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its platform wirelessly connects items and delivers data about the connected items to business and consumer applications. The company’s platform comprises endpoint ICs, a miniature radios-on-a-chip that attaches to a host item and includes a number to identify the item. Its platform also consists of systems products that consists of reader ICs, readers, and gateways to wirelessly provide power to and communicate bidirectionally with endpoint ICs on host items, as well as to read, write, authenticate, and engage the endpoint ICs on those items; and software and algorithms that enable its partners to solve enterprise business problems, such as retail self-checkout and loss prevention. The company primarily serves retail, supply chain and logistics, automotive, aviation, banking, datacenters, food, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, linen and uniform tracking, sports, and travel industries through original equipment and device manufacturers, tag service bureaus, systems integrators, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, and other solution partners. Impinj, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Ceva

CEVA, Inc. provides silicon and software IP solutions to semiconductor and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) companies worldwide. Its 5G mobile and infrastructure products include Ceva-XC vector digital signal processors (DSPs) for 5G handsets, 5G RAN, and general-purpose baseband processing; PentaG-RAN, an open ran platform for base station and radio; and PentaG2 – 5G NR modem platform for UE, as well as for non-handset 5G vertical markets, such as fixed wireless access, industry 4.0, robotics, and AR/VR devices. The company’s wireless IoT products comprise RivieraWaves’ Bluetooth 5dual mode and low energy platforms, RivieraWaves’ Wi-Fi platforms, ultra-wide band platforms, and Cellular IoT and RedCap platforms, as well as sense and inference processors and platforms consist of NeuPro-M neural processing unit (NPU) family; SensPro2 sensor hub AI platforms addressing imaging, vision, powertrain, and applications, including DSP processors, AI accelerators, and a software portfolio; and Ceva-BX1 and Ceva-BX2 audio AI DSPs. Its sensing and audio software comprise RealSpace spatial audio software package; WhisPro speech recognition; ClearVox, a voice front-end software package for voice-enabled devices; and CDNN, a neural network graph compiler that enables AI developers to automatically compile, optimize, and run pre-trained networks onto embedded devices. The company’s application software IP are licensed primarily to OEMs who embed it in their system on chip designs. It delivers AI DSPs and NPUs in the form of a hardware description language definition; and offers development platforms, software development kits, and software debug tools, which facilitate system design, debug, and software development. The company licenses its technology through a direct sales force. CEVA, Inc. was formerly known as ParthusCeva, Inc. and changed its name to CEVA, Inc. in December 2003. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.