Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) versus Daktronics (NASDAQ:DAKT) Head to Head Review

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

Risk & Volatility

Daktronics has a beta of 1.68, meaning that its share price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Littelfuse has a beta of 1.47, meaning that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Daktronics and Littelfuse”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Daktronics	$854.30 million	0.96	$45.38 million	$0.98	17.37
Littelfuse	$2.61 billion	4.17	-$71.70 million	($0.50)	-858.44

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

Profitability

This table compares Daktronics and Littelfuse’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Daktronics	5.66%	18.05%	9.68%
Littelfuse	-0.31%	13.02%	8.32%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Daktronics and Littelfuse, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Daktronics	0	2	2	0	2.50
Littelfuse	0	2	4	0	2.67

Daktronics presently has a consensus price target of $31.00, suggesting a potential upside of 82.14%. Littelfuse has a consensus price target of $465.83, suggesting a potential upside of 8.53%. Given Daktronics’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Daktronics is more favorable than Littelfuse.

Dividends

Daktronics pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Littelfuse pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Daktronics pays out 20.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Littelfuse pays out -640.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Littelfuse has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

61.7% of Daktronics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Littelfuse shares are held by institutional investors. 4.6% of Daktronics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Littelfuse shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Daktronics beats Littelfuse on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Daktronics

Daktronics, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells electronic scoreboards, programmable display systems and large screen video displays for sporting, commercial, and transportation applications in the United States and internationally. It operates through Commercial, Live Events, High School Park and Recreation, Transportation, and International segments. The company also offers video display and walls; scoreboards and timing systems; LED message displays and sings; intelligent transportation systems dynamic message signs; mass transit display; sound systems; and digital billboards and street furniture, and digit and price displays. In addition, it provides indoor dynamic messaging systems and liquid crystal display signs; and software and controllers, which includes Venus, a control suite software to control the creation of messages and graphic sequences for uploading to displays. The company sells its products through direct sales and resellers. Daktronics, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota.

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.