Contrasting Socket Mobile (NASDAQ:SCKT) & Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS)

Socket Mobile (NASDAQ:SCKT) and Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and risk.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Socket Mobile	-107.50%	-229.41%	-89.45%
Keysight Technologies	19.08%	24.34%	13.10%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Socket Mobile and Keysight Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Socket Mobile	$15.08 million	0.29	-$14.38 million	($1.85)	-0.29
Keysight Technologies	$5.38 billion	10.83	$850.00 million	$7.28	46.97

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

3.8% of Socket Mobile shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.6% of Keysight Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 54.8% of Socket Mobile shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Keysight Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Socket Mobile and Keysight Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Socket Mobile	1	0	0	0	1.00
Keysight Technologies	0	3	11	0	2.79

Keysight Technologies has a consensus target price of $401.42, suggesting a potential upside of 17.39%. Given Keysight Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Keysight Technologies is more favorable than Socket Mobile.

Volatility & Risk

Socket Mobile has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Keysight Technologies has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Keysight Technologies beats Socket Mobile on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Socket Mobile

Socket Mobile, Inc. provides data capture and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, Asia, and internationally. Its products and solutions are integrated into mobile applications for applications in the areas of point of sale, commercial services, asset tracking, manufacturing and quality control processes, transportation and logistics, event management, medical, and education. The company also offers cordless data capture devices that connect through Bluetooth and work with applications running on smartphones, mobile computers, and tablets; SocketScan and DuraScan 700 series, companion scanners and 800 series, attachable scanners, and wearables; and DuraSled, a barcode scanning sled that protects phones from impact damage and provides charging solutions. In addition, it offers D600, a handheld model to reads and writes various types of electronic SmartTags and transfers data with near-field communication (NFC); S550, a contactless membership card reader/writer; and S370 product that supports barcode scanning, and NFC reading and writing technologies. Further, the company provides SocketCam C820 and C860, which are camera-based barcode scanners; software developer kits, such as CaptureSDK that enables the App providers to modify captured data, control the placement of the barcoded or RFID data in their applications, and control the feedback to the user. It serves retail, commercial services, industrial and manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and healthcare industries through a network of distributors, online resellers, and application providers, as well as online stores. The company was formerly known as Socket Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Socket Mobile, Inc. in April 2008. Socket Mobile, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

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.