Critical Contrast: Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) vs. Sono-Tek (NASDAQ:SOTK)

Sono-Tek (NASDAQ:SOTK) and Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Volatility & Risk

Sono-Tek has a beta of -0.32, indicating that its share price is 132% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Marvell Technology has a beta of 1.97, indicating that its share price is 97% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Sono-Tek and Marvell Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sono-Tek	0	3	0	0	2.00
Marvell Technology	0	11	22	2	2.74

Marvell Technology has a consensus price target of $115.31, indicating a potential upside of 43.57%. Given Marvell Technology’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Marvell Technology is more favorable than Sono-Tek.

Profitability

This table compares Sono-Tek and Marvell Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sono-Tek	7.72%	8.54%	6.71%
Marvell Technology	31.75%	13.15%	8.65%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

47.9% of Sono-Tek shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.5% of Marvell Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of Sono-Tek shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Marvell Technology shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sono-Tek and Marvell Technology”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sono-Tek	$20.50 million	3.13	$1.27 million	$0.10	40.80
Marvell Technology	$5.77 billion	11.81	-$885.00 million	$2.85	28.18

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

Summary

Marvell Technology beats Sono-Tek on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sono-Tek

Sono-Tek Corporation designs and manufactures ultrasonic coating systems for applying on parts and components for the microelectronics/electronics, alternative energy, medical, industrial, and research and development/other markets worldwide. The company also designs and manufactures custom-engineered ultrasonic coating systems; and provides nozzles and generators for manufacturers' equipment. Its products include integrated multi-axis coating systems, integrated coating systems, fluxing systems, OEM systems, and other related systems. In addition, the company provides surface coating solutions and application consulting services. It markets and distributes its products through direct sales personnel, select independent distributors, and sales representatives. The company was incorporated in 1975 and is based in Milton, New York.

About Marvell Technology

Marvell Technology, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, spanning the data center core to network edge. The company develops and scales complex System-on-a-Chip architectures, integrating analog, mixed-signal, and digital signal processing functionality. It offers a portfolio of Ethernet solutions, including controllers, network adapters, physical transceivers, and switches; single or multiple core processors; and custom application specific integrated circuits. The company also provides electro-optical products, including pulse amplitude modulations, coherent digital signal processors, laser drivers, trans-impedance amplifiers, silicon photonics, and data center interconnect solutions; fibre channel products comprising host bus adapters and controllers; storage controllers for hard disk drives and solid-state-drives; and host system interfaces, including serial attached SCSI, serial advanced technology attachment, peripheral component interconnect express, non-volatile memory express (NVMe), and NVMe over fabrics. It has operations in the United States, Argentina, China, India, Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Marvell Technology, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.