Reviewing Ascent Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:ASTI) and Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD)

Ascent Solar Technologies (NASDAQ:ASTI) and Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Ascent Solar Technologies and Diodes, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ascent Solar Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00
Diodes	0	1	2	1	3.00

Diodes has a consensus price target of $52.67, indicating a potential upside of 3.43%. Given Diodes’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Diodes is more favorable than Ascent Solar Technologies.

Risk and Volatility

Ascent Solar Technologies has a beta of 2.42, meaning that its share price is 142% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Diodes has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ascent Solar Technologies and Diodes”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ascent Solar Technologies	$51,917.00	58.70	-$17.07 million	N/A	N/A
Diodes	$1.34 billion	1.76	$44.02 million	$0.55	92.58

Diodes has higher revenue and earnings than Ascent Solar Technologies.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

10.6% of Ascent Solar Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.2% of Diodes shares are held by institutional investors. 10.2% of Ascent Solar Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Diodes shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Ascent Solar Technologies and Diodes’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ascent Solar Technologies	-28,235.93%	-1,360.73%	-157.70%
Diodes	3.36%	3.28%	2.57%

Summary

Diodes beats Ascent Solar Technologies on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ascent Solar Technologies

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., a solar technology company, engages in the manufacture and sale of photovoltaic solar modules in the United States. The company markets and sells its products through OEMs, system integrators, distributors, retailers, and value-added resellers. It serves agrivoltaics, aerospace, satellites, near earth orbiting vehicles, and fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles. Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Thornton, Colorado.

About Diodes

Diodes Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and supplies application-specific standard products in the broad discrete, logic, analog, and mixed-signal semiconductor markets worldwide. The company offers discrete semiconductor products, such as MOSFETs, SiC MOSFETs; data line protection, power line protection, thyristers, USB Type-C protection, and transient voltage suppressors; Schottky, small signal switching, Zener, and SiC diodes; bridges, super barrier, Schottky, Schottky bridge, and fast/ultra-fast rectifiers; and bipolar, avalanche, gate driver, and pre-bias transistors. It also provides analog products, including power management devices comprising AC-DC and DC-DC converters, USB power switches, low dropout, photocoupler and linear voltage regulators; standard linear devices consisting of operational amplifiers and comparators, current monitors, voltage references, and reset generators; LED lighting drivers; audio amplifiers; and sensor products, such as hall-effect sensors and motor drivers. In addition, the company offers mixed-signal products, such as high speed mux/demux, digital switches, interface, redrivers, universal level shifters/voltage translators, clock ICs and packet switches; standard logic products comprising low-voltage complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and advanced high-speed CMOS devices; ultra-low power CMOS logic; and analog switches; multichip products and co-packaged discrete, analog and mixed-signal silicon in miniature packages; and silicon and silicon epitaxial wafers used in manufacturing frequency control products and contact images sensors. It serves the industrial, automotive, computing, communications, and consumer markets through direct sales, marketing personnel, independent sales representatives, and distributors. The company was incorporated in 1959 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.