American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) and TDK (OTCMKTS:TTDKY) Head-To-Head Comparison

TDK (OTCMKTS:TTDKY) and American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

TDK has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Superconductor has a beta of 2.97, meaning that its share price is 197% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

52.3% of American Superconductor shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of TDK shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of American Superconductor shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares TDK and American Superconductor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TDK	7.55%	9.32%	4.65%
American Superconductor	5.69%	6.48%	4.54%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for TDK and American Superconductor, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TDK	0	0	0	0	0.00
American Superconductor	0	1	1	0	2.50

American Superconductor has a consensus price target of $39.00, indicating a potential upside of 27.53%. Given American Superconductor’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe American Superconductor is more favorable than TDK.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares TDK and American Superconductor”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TDK	$14.48 billion	1.92	$1.10 billion	$0.61	23.41
American Superconductor	$222.82 million	6.20	$6.03 million	$0.37	82.65

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

Summary

American Superconductor beats TDK on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TDK

TDK Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in manufacture and sale of electronic components in Japan, Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, and internationally. The company operates through Passive Components, Sensor Application Products, Magnetic Application Products, Energy Application Products, and Other segments. The Passive Components segment offers ceramic capacitors, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, film capacitors, high-frequency components, piezoelectric materials, and circuit protection components, as well as inductive devices, including ferrite cores, coils, and transformers. The Sensor Application Products segment provides temperature and pressure, magnetic, and MEMS sensors. The Magnetic Application Products segment offers hard disk drives (HDD) heads, HDD suspension assemblies, and magnets. The Energy Application Products segment provides energy devices comprising rechargeable batteries, and power supplies. The Other segment provides mechatronics production equipment and camera module micro actuators for smartphones and other products. The company also engages in engages in insurance and real estate agency businesses. The company was formerly known as Tokyo Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. and changed its name to TDK Corporation in 1983. TDK Corporation was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About American Superconductor

American Superconductor Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides megawatt-scale power resiliency solutions worldwide. The company operates through Grid and Wind segments. The Grid segment offers products and services that enable electric utilities, industrial facilities, and renewable energy project developers to connect, transmit, and distribute power under the Gridtec Solutions brand. It provides transmission planning services, which identify power grid congestion, poor power quality, and other risks; grid interconnection solutions for wind farms and solar power plants, power quality systems, and transmission and distribution cable systems; D-VAR systems used for controlling power flow and voltage in the AC transmission system; actiVAR system, a fast-switching medium-voltage reactive compensation solution; armorVAR system installed for reactive compensation, power factor correction, loss reduction, utility bill savings, and mitigation of common power quality concerns related to power converter-based generation and load devices; and D-VAR volt var optimization (VVO) that serves the distribution power grid market. This segment also offers ship protection systems, which reduce a naval ship’s magnetic signature; and ON board power delivery systems, power generation systems, and propulsion systems; and transformers and rectifiers systems. The Wind segment designs wind turbine systems and licenses these designs to third parties under the Windtec Solutions brand. It also supplies power electronics and software-based control systems, engineered designs, and support services; and provides customer support services to wind turbine manufacturers. This segment’s design portfolio comprises a range of drivetrains and power ratings of 2 megawatts and higher. American Superconductor Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Ayer, Massachusetts.