Comparing Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) and Video Display (OTCMKTS:VIDE)

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) and Video Display (OTCMKTS:VIDE) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.1% of Littelfuse shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of Littelfuse shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 48.8% of Video Display shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Littelfuse and Video Display”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Littelfuse	$2.39 billion	3.39	-$71.70 million	($2.90)	-112.17
Video Display	$8.30 million	0.00	-$130,000.00	($0.13)	0.00

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Littelfuse and Video Display, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Littelfuse	0	1	2	2	3.20
Video Display	0	0	0	0	0.00

Littelfuse currently has a consensus target price of $364.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.90%. Given Littelfuse’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Littelfuse is more favorable than Video Display.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Littelfuse	-3.00%	10.53%	6.65%
Video Display	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

Littelfuse has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Video Display has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Littelfuse beats Video Display on 10 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 Video Display

Video Display Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, distributes, and installs display products and systems for government, military, aerospace, medical, and commercial organizations worldwide. The company operates in four divisions: Simulation and Training Products; Cyber Secure Products; Data Display CRTs; and Other Computer Products. It offers dome and multi-faceted aircraft simulator display systems, video walls for broadcast and control centers, rugged video walls for combat information centers, rugged flat panel displays and computers, projector and monitor upgrades, and projection screens. The company also provides cyber security products, such as TEMPEST technology products and custom engineering solutions; and various contract services, including the design and testing solutions for defense and niche commercial uses. In addition, it manufactures and distributes cathode ray tubes (CRTs) for use in data display screens, such as computer terminal monitors, medical monitoring equipment, and various other data display applications, as well as in television sets; and distributes CRTs and other electronic tubes purchased from original equipment manufacturers, as well as offers cyber-secure keyboards. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Cocoa, Florida.