Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) & Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) Critical Analysis

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) and Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Keysight Technologies has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Plexus has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

84.6% of Keysight Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.5% of Plexus shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Keysight Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Plexus shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Keysight Technologies and Plexus”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Keysight Technologies	$5.38 billion	12.19	$850.00 million	$7.28	52.85
Plexus	$4.03 billion	1.81	$172.88 million	$6.78	40.28

Keysight Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than Plexus. Plexus is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Keysight Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Keysight Technologies and Plexus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Keysight Technologies	19.08%	24.34%	13.10%
Plexus	4.03%	12.46%	5.57%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Keysight Technologies and Plexus, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Keysight Technologies	0	2	11	1	2.93
Plexus	0	1	6	1	3.00

Keysight Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $392.83, indicating a potential upside of 2.10%. Plexus has a consensus price target of $276.86, indicating a potential upside of 1.36%. Given Keysight Technologies’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Keysight Technologies is more favorable than Plexus.

Summary

Keysight Technologies beats Plexus on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight Technologies, Inc. provides electronic design and test solutions to commercial communications, networking, aerospace, defense and government, automotive, energy, semiconductor, electronic, and education industries in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Communications Solutions Group and Electronic Industrial Solutions Group. It offers electronic design automation (EDA) software; instrument measurement software, instrument workflow software, and software testing; digital multimeter, phase noise measurement, power meters and power sensors, counters, LCR meters and impedance measurement products, and electrometers; and spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers and exercisers, bit error ratio testers, noise figure analyzers, AC and DC power analyzers, materials test equipment, device current waveform analyzers, and curve tracers. The company also provides waveform and function generators, arbitrary waveform generators, DC power supplies, and DC electronic loads; wireless drive test, radio access and core network test, wireless analyzers, wireless network emulators, and over-the-air test; application and threat intelligence, cloud test, cyber training simulator, network test hardware, synthetic traffic generators, protocol and load test, network security test, and network modeling; bypass switches, clock synchronization, cloud visibility, network and application monitoring, network packet brokers, and network taps; and application-specific test systems, photonic test and measurement products, and MMIC millimeter-wave and microwave devices. In addition, it offers product support, technical support, installation, training, engineering, and integration services. The company sells its products through direct sales force, distributors, resellers, and manufacturer's representatives. Keysight Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Santa Rosa, California.

About Plexus

Plexus Corp. provides electronic manufacturing services in the United States and internationally. It offers design, develop, supply chain, new product introduction, and manufacturing solutions, as well as sustaining services to companies in the healthcare/life sciences, industrial/commercial, aerospace/defense, and communications market sectors. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Neenah, Wisconsin.