American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC – Get Free Report) and Vicor (NASDAQ:VICR – Get Free Report) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and risk.
Risk & Volatility
American Superconductor has a beta of 3.2, meaning that its share price is 220% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vicor has a beta of 2.36, meaning that its share price is 136% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares American Superconductor and Vicor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| American Superconductor | 44.73% | 32.19% | 24.14% |
| Vicor | 28.98% | 20.21% | 18.26% |
Analyst Recommendations
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| American Superconductor | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2.33 |
| Vicor | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3.00 |
Vicor has a consensus price target of $228.33, indicating a potential downside of 29.18%. Given Vicor’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Vicor is more favorable than American Superconductor.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
52.3% of American Superconductor shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.5% of Vicor shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of American Superconductor shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 28.3% of Vicor shares are held 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.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares American Superconductor and Vicor”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| American Superconductor | $299.15 million | 6.55 | $133.81 million | $3.00 | 13.69 |
| Vicor | $452.70 million | 32.46 | $118.56 million | $2.99 | 107.83 |
American Superconductor has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Vicor. American Superconductor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vicor, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Vicor beats American Superconductor on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About American Superconductor
American Superconductor Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides megawatt-scale power resiliency solutions worldwide. The company operates through Grid and Wind segments. The Grid segment offers products and services that enable electric utilities, industrial facilities, and renewable energy project developers to connect, transmit, and distribute power under the Gridtec Solutions brand. It provides transmission planning services, which identify power grid congestion, poor power quality, and other risks; grid interconnection solutions for wind farms and solar power plants, power quality systems, and transmission and distribution cable systems; D-VAR systems used for controlling power flow and voltage in the AC transmission system; actiVAR system, a fast-switching medium-voltage reactive compensation solution; armorVAR system installed for reactive compensation, power factor correction, loss reduction, utility bill savings, and mitigation of common power quality concerns related to power converter-based generation and load devices; and D-VAR volt var optimization (VVO) that serves the distribution power grid market. This segment also offers ship protection systems, which reduce a naval ship’s magnetic signature; and ON board power delivery systems, power generation systems, and propulsion systems; and transformers and rectifiers systems. The Wind segment designs wind turbine systems and licenses these designs to third parties under the Windtec Solutions brand. It also supplies power electronics and software-based control systems, engineered designs, and support services; and provides customer support services to wind turbine manufacturers. This segment’s design portfolio comprises a range of drivetrains and power ratings of 2 megawatts and higher. American Superconductor Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Ayer, Massachusetts.
About Vicor
Vicor Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and markets modular power components and power systems for converting electrical power in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company offers a range of brick-format DC-DC converters; complementary components provide AC line rectification, input filtering, power factor correction, and transient protection; and input and output voltage, and output power products, as well as electrical and mechanical accessories. It also design, sells, and service custom power systems solutions. The company serves independent manufacturers of electronic devices, original equipment manufacturers, and their contract manufacturers in the aerospace and aviation, defense electronics, satellites, factory automation, instrumentation, test equipment, transportation, telecommunications and networking infrastructure and vehicles, and transportation markets. Vicor Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts.
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