Sequans Communications (NYSE:SQNS) & IQE (OTCMKTS:IQEPF) Head-To-Head Contrast

IQE (OTCMKTS:IQEPF) and Sequans Communications (NYSE:SQNS) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for IQE and Sequans Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IQE	0	0	0	0	0.00
Sequans Communications	1	0	3	1	2.80

Sequans Communications has a consensus target price of $10.83, indicating a potential upside of 112.21%. Given Sequans Communications’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Sequans Communications is more favorable than IQE.

Profitability

This table compares IQE and Sequans Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IQE	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sequans Communications	-81.62%	-32.69%	-16.79%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares IQE and Sequans Communications”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IQE	$150.84 million	0.43	-$48.79 million	N/A	N/A
Sequans Communications	$36.76 million	1.99	$57.57 million	($8.08)	-0.63

Sequans Communications has lower revenue, but higher earnings than IQE.

Volatility & Risk

IQE has a beta of 1.47, indicating that its stock price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sequans Communications has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its stock price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

63.3% of Sequans Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.4% of Sequans Communications shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Sequans Communications beats IQE on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About IQE

IQE plc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells advanced semiconductor materials. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Photonics, and CMOS++. The company manufactures and sells compound semiconductor materials for the wireless market which includes radio frequency devices for wireless communications, and photonics market, that includes applications that transmit and sense visible and infrared lights, as well as advanced semiconductor materials related to silicon. It operates in the United States, rest of the Americas, France, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the People's Republic of China, Japan, Taiwan, and rest of the Asia-Pacific. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Cardiff, the United Kingdom.

About Sequans Communications

Sequans Communications S.A. engages in the fabless designing, developing, and supplying of cellular semiconductor solutions for massive and broadband Internet of Things (IoT) markets in Taiwan, Korea, China, rest of Asia, Germany, the United States, and internationally. It offers baseband solutions for use in encoding and decoding data based on 4G and 5G protocols for wireless processing platform for a cellular device; RF transceivers used to transmit and receive wireless transmissions; highly integrated SoC solutions that combine various functions into a single die or package; and LTE modules. The company also provides software, including source code and tools to enable manufacturers to integrate their solutions into their devices; and design support services. The company serves OEMs and ODMs Customers, as well as 4G and 5G wireless carriers. Sequans Communications S.A. was incorporated in 2003 and is based in Paris, France.