KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC – Get Free Report) and Peraso (NASDAQ:PRSO – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.
Volatility & Risk
KLA has a beta of 1.45, suggesting that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peraso has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
86.7% of KLA shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.6% of Peraso shares are held by institutional investors. 79.4% of KLA shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Peraso shares are held by company 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.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings for KLA and Peraso, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| KLA | 0 | 10 | 19 | 0 | 2.66 |
| Peraso | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.33 |
KLA presently has a consensus price target of $221.26, suggesting a potential upside of 51.95%. Peraso has a consensus price target of $3.08, suggesting a potential upside of 714.83%. Given Peraso’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Peraso is more favorable than KLA.
Profitability
This table compares KLA and Peraso’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| KLA | 35.57% | 87.66% | 29.23% |
| Peraso | -85.63% | -223.38% | -153.27% |
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares KLA and Peraso”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| KLA | $13.58 billion | 13.99 | $4.83 billion | $3.67 | 39.68 |
| Peraso | $12.19 million | 0.47 | -$4.75 million | ($0.68) | -0.56 |
KLA has higher revenue and earnings than Peraso. Peraso is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KLA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
KLA beats Peraso on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About KLA
KLA Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of process control, process-enabling, and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related electronics industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; and PCB and Component Inspection. The company offers inspection and review tools to identify, locate, characterize, review, and analyze defects on various surfaces of patterned and unpatterned wafers; metrology systems that are used to measure pattern dimensions, film thickness, film stress, layer-to-layer alignment, pattern placement, surface topography, and electro-optical properties for wafers; chemical process control equipment; wired and wireless sensor wafers and reticles; wafer defect inspection, review, and metrology systems; reticle inspection and metrology systems; and semiconductor software solutions that provide run-time process control, defect excursion identification, process corrections, and defect classification to accelerate yield learning rates and reduce production risk. It also provides etch, plasma dicing, deposition, and other wafer processing technologies and solutions for the semiconductor and microelectronics industry. In addition, the company offers direct imaging, inspection, optical shaping, inkjet and additive printing, UV laser drilling, and computer-aided manufacturing and engineering solutions for the PCB market; inspection and electrical testing systems to identify and classify defects, as well as systems to repair defects for the display market; and inspection and metrology systems for quality control and yield improvement in advanced and traditional semiconductor packaging markets. The company was formerly known as KLA-Tencor Corporation and changed its name to KLA Corporation in July 2019. KLA Corporation was incorporated in 1975 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.
About Peraso
Peraso Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, develops, markets, and sells semiconductor devices and modules. The company's products include millimeter wavelength (mmWave) ICs, including baseband IC, various mmWave radio frequency, integrated circuits, as well as associated antenna technology; and mmWave antenna modules. It also provides accelerator engine products, comprising bandwidth engine for high-performance applications where throughput is critical; and quad partition rate, which allows for parallel accesses to multiple partitions of the memory simultaneously. Its mmWave products are used for various applications, such as multi-gigabit point-to-point (PtMP) wireless links; and fixed wireless access in the 5G operating bands, as well as consumer applications, such as wireless video streaming, and untethered augmented reality and virtual reality. The company also licenses intellectual property, as well as offers non-recurring engineering services. It markets its products through direct sales personnel, as well as sells representatives and distributors. The company was formerly knowns as MoSys, Inc. and changed its name to Peraso Inc. in December 2021. Peraso Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is based in San Jose, California.
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