Reviewing GCT Semiconductor (NYSE:GCTS) & Pixelworks (NASDAQ:PXLW)

Pixelworks (NASDAQ:PXLW) and GCT Semiconductor (NYSE:GCTS) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Pixelworks and GCT Semiconductor, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pixelworks	0	0	3	0	3.00
GCT Semiconductor	0	0	0	0	N/A

Pixelworks presently has a consensus target price of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 160.44%. Given Pixelworks’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Pixelworks is more favorable than GCT Semiconductor.

Profitability

This table compares Pixelworks and GCT Semiconductor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pixelworks	-33.22%	-55.94%	-22.24%
GCT Semiconductor	N/A	-16.90%	-27.58%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

21.4% of Pixelworks shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.1% of GCT Semiconductor shares are held by institutional investors. 4.7% of Pixelworks shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of GCT Semiconductor shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pixelworks and GCT Semiconductor’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pixelworks	$59.68 million	0.93	-$26.18 million	($0.39)	-2.46
GCT Semiconductor	N/A	N/A	-$2.00 million	N/A	N/A

GCT Semiconductor has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Pixelworks.

Risk & Volatility

Pixelworks has a beta of 1.82, meaning that its stock price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GCT Semiconductor has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pixelworks beats GCT Semiconductor on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pixelworks

Pixelworks, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops and markets semiconductor and software solutions for mobile, home and enterprise, and cinema markets in the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Europe. The company offers imageprocessor integrated circuits, such as embedded microprocessors, digital signal processing technology, and software that control the operations and signal processing within high-end display systems; visual processor integrated circuits that works with a mobile application processor; and transcoder integrated circuits which includes software that control the operations and signal processing for converting multiple bitrates, resolutions and codecs to provide bandwidth efficient video transmissions based on industry standard protocols. It also provides software and platform licensing products comprising Pixelworks Pro Software, a software that enables development and customize the look and feel of mobile products by use of various features, such as absolute color accuracy, HDR tone mapping, SDR-to-HDR conversion, and others; and TrueCut Motion Platform, content creation tool which provides the ability to dial in a motion look on a shot-by-shot basis. The company distributes its products to integrators, branded manufacturers, and branded suppliers. Pixelworks, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Portland, Oregon.

About GCT Semiconductor

GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc., operates as a fabless semiconductor company, designs, develops, and markets integrated circuits for the wireless semiconductor industry. The company provides RF and modem chipsets based on 4G LTE technology, including 4G LTE, 4.5G LTE Advanced, and 4.75G LTE Advanced-Pro. It also develops and sells cellular IoT chipsets for low-speed mobile networks such as eMTC/NB-IOT/Sigfox, and other network protocols; and 5G solutions. Its products and solutions are used in smartphones, tablets, hotspots, CPEs, USB dongles, routers, and M2M applications. The company sells its products directly or indirectly through distributors to original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers primarily in Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, Europe, North America and South America. The company was formerly known as Global Communication Technology, Inc. GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.