Reviewing Seiko Epson (OTCMKTS:SEKEY) & CPI Card Group (NASDAQ:PMTS)

Seiko Epson (OTCMKTS:SEKEY) and CPI Card Group (NASDAQ:PMTS) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

22.1% of CPI Card Group shares are held by institutional investors. 5.8% of CPI Card Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Seiko Epson has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CPI Card Group has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Seiko Epson and CPI Card Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seiko Epson	1.71%	2.97%	1.66%
CPI Card Group	2.71%	-191.52%	6.95%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Seiko Epson and CPI Card Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seiko Epson	0	1	0	0	2.00
CPI Card Group	0	2	4	0	2.67

CPI Card Group has a consensus target price of $30.25, indicating a potential upside of 29.94%. Given CPI Card Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe CPI Card Group is more favorable than Seiko Epson.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Seiko Epson and CPI Card Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seiko Epson	$9.39 billion	0.68	$113.84 million	$0.44	19.47
CPI Card Group	$543.53 million	0.50	$14.95 million	$1.37	16.99

Seiko Epson has higher revenue and earnings than CPI Card Group. CPI Card Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seiko Epson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

CPI Card Group beats Seiko Epson on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Seiko Epson

Seiko Epson Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, sells, and provides services for products in the printing solutions, visual communications, manufacturing-related and wearables, and other businesses. It operates through three segments: Printing Solutions, Visual Communications, and Manufacturing-related and Wearables segments. The Printing Solutions segment offers home and office inkjet printers, serial impact dot matrix printers, page printers, color image scanners, dry process office papermaking systems, commercial and industrial inkjet printers, inkjet printheads, printers for use in POS systems, label printers, printer consumables, and others. The Visual Communications segment provides 3LCD projectors for business, education, the home, and event; smart glasses; and others. The Manufacturing-related and Wearables segment offers wristwatches, watch movements, and others; factory automation products, industrial robots, compact injection molders, and other production systems; and crystal units, crystal oscillators, quartz sensors, and others for consumer, automotive, and industrial equipment applications. This segment also provides CMOS LSIs and other chips primarily for consumer electronics and automotive applications; and metal powders for use as raw materials in the production of electronic components, etc., as well as value-added surface finishing in a range of industrial fields. The company also sells PCs, etc. It has operations in Japan, the Philippines, the United States, Indonesia, China, and internationally. Seiko Epson Corporation was incorporated in 1942 and is headquartered in Suwa, Japan.

About CPI Card Group

CPI Card Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, production, data personalization, packaging, and fulfillment of financial payment cards. It operates through Debit and Credit, and Prepaid Debit segments. The Debit and Credit segment produces financial payment cards and provides integrated card services to card-issuing financial institutions. Its products include Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) and non-EMV financial payment cards, including contact and contactless cards, plastic and encased metal cards, and Second Wave payment cards, as well as private label credit cards. This segment also provides on-demand services and various integrated card services, including card personalization and fulfillment, as well as instant issuance services. The Prepaid Debit segment primarily offers integrated card services comprising tamper-evident security packaging services to prepaid debit card providers. It also produces financial payment cards issued on the networks of the payment card brands. It serves issuers of debit and credit cards, Prepaid Debit Card program managers, community banks, credit unions, and group service providers in the United States. The company was formerly known as CPI Holdings I, Inc. and changed its name to CPI Card Group Inc. in August 2015. CPI Card Group Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Littleton, Colorado.