Financial Analysis: Lightwave Logic (NASDAQ:LWLG) vs. Mirion Technologies (NYSE:MIR)

Mirion Technologies (NYSE:MIR) and Lightwave Logic (NASDAQ:LWLG) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

78.5% of Mirion Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.0% of Lightwave Logic shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of Mirion Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Lightwave Logic shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Mirion Technologies has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lightwave Logic has a beta of 2.4, indicating that its share price is 140% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Mirion Technologies and Lightwave Logic’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mirion Technologies	2.39%	6.59%	3.53%
Lightwave Logic	-9,143.60%	-30.34%	-28.76%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Mirion Technologies and Lightwave Logic”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mirion Technologies	$1.02 billion	3.74	$28.80 million	$0.10	154.08
Lightwave Logic	$250,251.00	2,729.10	-$20.31 million	($0.16)	-27.69

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Mirion Technologies and Lightwave Logic, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mirion Technologies	0	2	7	1	2.90
Lightwave Logic	1	1	1	0	2.00

Mirion Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $25.12, indicating a potential upside of 63.06%. Lightwave Logic has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 125.73%. Given Lightwave Logic’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lightwave Logic is more favorable than Mirion Technologies.

Summary

Mirion Technologies beats Lightwave Logic on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Lightwave Logic

Lightwave Logic, Inc. focuses on the development of photonic devices and electro-optical polymer materials systems for fiber-optic data communications, telecommunications, and optical computing markets in the United States. The company is involved in the designing and synthesizing of organic chromophores for use in its electro-optic polymer systems and photonic device designs. It also offers electro-optic modulators, which converts data from electric signals to optical signals for transmission over fiber-optic cables; and polymer photonic integrated circuits, a photonic device, which integrates various photonic functions on a single chip. In addition, the company provides the ridge waveguide modulator, a modulator that fabricates the waveguide within a layer of its electro-optic polymer system. It focuses on selling its products to electro-optic device manufacturers, contract manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, foundries, packaging and assembly manufacturers, etc.; and semiconductor companies, optical network companies, Web 2.0/3.0 media companies, computing companies, telecommunications companies, aerospace companies, automotive companies, and government agencies and defense entities. The company was formerly known as Third-order Nanotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Lightwave Logic, Inc. in March 2008. Lightwave Logic, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.