Mirion Technologies (NYSE:MIR) & nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Head-To-Head Comparison

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) and Mirion Technologies (NYSE:MIR) are both mid-cap technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares nLight and Mirion Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
nLight	$310.70 million	6.80	-$23.47 million	($0.25)	-146.52
Mirion Technologies	$925.40 million	4.98	$28.80 million	$0.10	185.15

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.9% of nLight shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.5% of Mirion Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 3.1% of nLight shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of Mirion Technologies shares are held by company 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for nLight and Mirion Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
nLight	1	1	9	1	2.83
Mirion Technologies	0	2	7	1	2.90

nLight currently has a consensus target price of $86.50, suggesting a potential upside of 136.15%. Mirion Technologies has a consensus target price of $24.88, suggesting a potential upside of 34.35%. Given nLight’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe nLight is more favorable than Mirion Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares nLight and Mirion Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
nLight	-4.02%	-2.83%	-2.26%
Mirion Technologies	2.69%	6.82%	3.62%

Volatility and Risk

nLight has a beta of 2.37, suggesting that its stock price is 137% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mirion Technologies has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Mirion Technologies beats nLight on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About nLight

nLIGHT, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor and fiber lasers for industrial, microfabrication, and aerospace and defense applications. The company operates in two segments, Laser Products and Advanced Development. It offers semiconductor lasers with various ranges of power levels, wavelengths, and output fiber sizes; and programmable and serviceable fiber lasers for use in industrial and aerospace and defense applications. The company also provides laser sensors, including light detection and ranging technologies for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications; and fiber amplifiers, beam combination, and control systems for use in high-energy laser systems in directed energy applications. It sells its products through direct sales force in the United States, China, South Korea, and European countries, as well as through independent sales representatives and distributors in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. The company was formerly known as nLight Photonics Corporation and changed its name to nLIGHT, Inc. in January 2016. nLIGHT, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Camas, Washington.

About Mirion Technologies

Mirion Technologies, Inc. provides radiation detection, measurement, analysis, and monitoring products and services in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, China, Belgium, Netherlands, Estonia, South Korea, and Japan. It operates through two segments, Medical and Technologies. The Medical segment offers radiation oncology quality assurance and dosimetry solutions; patient safety solutions for diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy centers; radiation therapy quality assurance solutions for calibrating and verifying imaging and treatment accuracy; and radionuclide therapy products for nuclear medicine applications, such as shielding, product handling, medical imaging furniture, and rehabilitation products. This segment supports applications in medical diagnostics, cancer treatment, practitioner safety, and rehabilitation. The Technologies segment focuses on addressing critical radiation safety, measurement, and analysis applications; and provides personal radiation detection, identification equipment, and analysis tools. The company's products and solutions also include nuclear medicines, dosimeters, contamination and clearance monitors, reactor instrumentation and control equipment and systems, medical and industrial imaging systems and related accessories, alpha spectroscopy instruments, alpha/beta counting instruments, and gamma spectroscopy detector systems; and electrical penetration, cancer diagnostics, software, and other services. It serves hospitals, clinics and urgent care facilities, dental and veterinary offices, radiation treatment facilities, OEMs for radiation therapy, laboratories, military organizations, government agencies, industrial companies, power and utility companies, reactor design firms, and NPPs. The company was formerly known as Global Monitoring Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Mirion Technologies, Inc. in January 2006. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.