Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD – Get Free Report) and Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.
Profitability
This table compares Clearfield and Lumentum’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Clearfield | -4.71% | 1.61% | 1.45% |
| Lumentum | -230.15% | 26.34% | 10.25% |
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Clearfield and Lumentum”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Clearfield | $150.13 million | 2.56 | -$8.05 million | ($0.51) | -55.41 |
| Lumentum | $3.01 billion | 29.81 | -$6.94 billion | ($82.21) | -12.18 |
Clearfield has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Lumentum. Clearfield is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lumentum, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Risk & Volatility
Clearfield has a beta of 2.11, indicating that its stock price is 111% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lumentum has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its stock price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Clearfield and Lumentum, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Clearfield | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2.57 |
| Lumentum | 1 | 5 | 15 | 1 | 2.73 |
Clearfield presently has a consensus target price of $41.75, suggesting a potential upside of 47.74%. Lumentum has a consensus target price of $1,053.83, suggesting a potential upside of 5.23%. Given Clearfield’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Clearfield is more favorable than Lumentum.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
88.7% of Clearfield shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.1% of Lumentum shares are held by institutional investors. 17.8% of Clearfield shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Lumentum shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Lumentum beats Clearfield on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Clearfield
Clearfield, Inc. manufactures and sells various fiber connectivity products in the United States and internationally. The company offers FieldSmart, a series of panels, cabinets, wall boxes, and other enclosures; WaveSmart, an optical components integrated for signal coupling, splitting, termination, multiplexing, demultiplexing, and attenuation for integration within its fiber management platform; and active cabinet products. It also provides CraftSmart FiberFirst pedestals, an access terminal that offers a cable management and mounting bracket kit to support the deployment of access terminals; YOURx, an access terminal that provides flexibility with cable mid-span and internal splicing options; and FieldShield, a fiber pathway and protection method for reducing the cost of broadband deployment. In addition, the company offers fiber assemblies; fiber optic and copper cables, microducts, microduct accessories, and tools; and installation and connection accessories for fiber optic networks. It serves community broadband customers, multiple system operators, large regional service providers, and wireline/wireless national telco carriers. The company was formerly known as APA Enterprises, Inc. and changed its name to Clearfield, Inc. in January 2008. Clearfield, Inc. was incorpoarted in 1979 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
About Lumentum
Lumentum Holdings Inc. manufactures and sells optical and photonic products in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through two segments: Optical Communications (OpComms) and Commercial Lasers (Lasers). The OpComms segment offers components, modules, and subsystems that enable the transmission and transport of video, audio, and data over high-capacity fiber optic cables. It offers tunable transponders, transceivers, and transmitter modules; tunable lasers, receivers, and modulators; transport products, such as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers, amplifiers, and optical channel monitors, as well as components, including 980nm, multi-mode, and Raman pumps; and switches, attenuators, photodetectors, gain flattening filters, isolators, wavelength-division multiplexing filters, arrayed waveguide gratings, multiplex/de-multiplexers, and integrated passive modules. This segment also provides Super Transport Blade, which integrates optical transport functions into a single-slot blade; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; directly modulated and electro-absorption modulated lasers; and laser illumination sources for 3D sensing systems. It serves customers in telecommunications, data communications, and consumer and industrial markets. The Commercial Lasers segment offers diode-pumped solid-state, fiber, diode, direct-diode, and gas lasers, such as argon-ion and helium-neon lasers for use in original equipment manufacturer applications. It serves customers in markets and applications, such as sheet metal processing, general manufacturing, biotechnology, solar cell processing, graphics and imaging, remote sensing, and precision machining. Lumentum Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
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