Head-To-Head Survey: Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) & Data I/O (NASDAQ:DAIO)

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) and Data I/O (NASDAQ:DAIO) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Littelfuse and Data I/O, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Littelfuse	1	1	4	0	2.50
Data I/O	1	1	1	2	2.80

Littelfuse currently has a consensus price target of $465.83, indicating a potential upside of 10.62%. Data I/O has a consensus price target of $5.11, indicating a potential upside of 57.23%. Given Data I/O’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Data I/O is more favorable than Littelfuse.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Littelfuse and Data I/O”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Littelfuse	$2.39 billion	4.46	-$71.70 million	($1.69)	-249.17
Data I/O	$21.50 million	1.42	-$5.24 million	($0.84)	-3.87

Data I/O has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Littelfuse. Littelfuse is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Data I/O, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Littelfuse has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Data I/O has a beta of 1.26, meaning that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.1% of Littelfuse shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.0% of Data I/O shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Littelfuse shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Data I/O shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Littelfuse and Data I/O’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Littelfuse	-1.61%	11.62%	7.39%
Data I/O	-41.85%	-54.33%	-36.75%

Summary

Littelfuse beats Data I/O on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Littelfuse

Littelfuse, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components, modules, and subassemblies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, electromechanical switches and interconnect solutions, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, varistors, reed switch based magnetic sensing products, and gas discharge tubes; and discrete transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diodes, TVS diode arrays, protection and switching thyristors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors. This segment serves industrial motor drives and power conversion, automotive electronics, electric vehicle and related charging infrastructure, aerospace, power supplies, data centers, telecommunications, medical devices, alternative energy, building and home automation, appliances, and mobile electronics markets. The Transportation segment provides blade, resettable, and high-current and high-voltage fuses, as well as battery cable protectors; fuses, switches, relays, circuit breakers, and power distribution modules; and sensor products. This segment serves heavy-duty truck, construction, agriculture, material handling, and marine. The Industrial segment offers industrial fuses, protection relays, contactors, transformers, residual current devices, ground fault circuit interrupters, residual current monitors, arc fault detection devices, and temperature sensors for use in renewable energy and energy storage systems, electric vehicle infrastructure, HVAC systems, industrial safety, non-residential construction, MRO, mining, and factory automation. It sells its products through distributors, direct sales force, and manufacturers' representatives. Littelfuse, Inc. was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Data I/O

Data I/O Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of programming and security deployment systems and services for electronic device manufacturers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its programming system products are used to program integrated circuits (ICs) with the specific data for the ICs. The company offers PSV handlers off-line automated programming systems, such as PSV2800 automated programming system which focuses on high-volume manufacturing in a lower cost platform; PSV7000 automated programming system for security deployment upgrades; PSV5000 automated programming system that combines mid-range capacity and supports security deployment; and PSV3500 automated programming system which provides basic programming needs. It also provides SentriX security deployment system; and LumenX and non-automated FlashPAK III programming systems. In addition, the company offers hardware support, system installation and repair, and device programming services. It markets and sells its products to original equipment manufacturers in automotive and consumer electronics, internet of things, and industrial, as well as electronic manufacturing service contract manufacturers through direct sales, and indirect sales representatives and distributors. Data I/O Corporation was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.