Contrasting Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) & ASML (NASDAQ:ASML)

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) and Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ:PENG) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

ASML has a beta of 1.79, indicating that its stock price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Penguin Solutions has a beta of 2.86, indicating that its stock price is 186% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

26.1% of ASML shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Penguin Solutions shares are owned by 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 ASML and Penguin Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ASML	$36.95 billion	19.31	$10.87 billion	$32.14	56.46
Penguin Solutions	$1.37 billion	2.07	$25.39 million	$1.41	39.28

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for ASML and Penguin Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ASML	3	5	18	3	2.72
Penguin Solutions	1	2	6	0	2.56

ASML currently has a consensus price target of $1,970.33, indicating a potential upside of 8.57%. Penguin Solutions has a consensus price target of $63.33, indicating a potential upside of 14.36%. Given Penguin Solutions’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Penguin Solutions is more favorable than ASML.

Profitability

This table compares ASML and Penguin Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ASML	30.11%	52.71%	22.10%
Penguin Solutions	6.44%	28.23%	6.58%

Summary

ASML beats Penguin Solutions on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ASML

ASML Holding N.V. develops, produces, markets, sells, and services advanced semiconductor equipment systems for chipmakers. It offers advanced semiconductor equipment systems, including lithography, metrology, and inspection systems. The company also provides extreme ultraviolet lithography systems; and deep ultraviolet lithography systems comprising immersion and dry lithography solutions to manufacture various range of semiconductor nodes and technologies. In addition, it offers metrology and inspection systems, including YieldStar optical metrology systems to assess the quality of patterns on the wafers; and HMI electron beam solutions to locate and analyze individual chip defects. Further, the company provides computational lithography solutions, and lithography systems and control software solutions; and refurbishes and upgrades lithography systems, as well as offers customer support and related services. It operates in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, China, rest of Asia, the Netherlands, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States. The company was formerly known as ASM Lithography Holding N.V. and changed its name to ASML Holding N.V. in 2001. ASML Holding N.V. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.

About Penguin Solutions

Penguin Solutions, Inc. engages in the designing and development of enterprise solutions worldwide. It operates through three segments: Advanced Computing, Integrated Memory, and Optimized LED. It offers dynamic random access memory modules, solid-state and flash storage, and other advanced integrated memory solutions for networking and telecom, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications; and supply chain services, including procurement, logistics, inventory management, temporary warehousing, programming, kitting, and packaging services. The company also provides Penguin Computing that focus on technical computing for core and cloud environments through high-performance computing and AI solutions; and Penguin Edge, an edge computing solution for embedded and wireless applications, such as high-performance products for government, health care, manufacturing, and telecommunications applications. In addition, it offers Stratus, which provides simplified, protected, and autonomous fault tolerant computing solutions in the data center and at the Edge through hardware and software services; and solutions to education, energy, financial services, government, hyperscale, and manufacturing markets. Further, the company provides LED chip products comprising blue and green LED chips based on gallium nitride, and related materials under Cree LED brand; and surface mount devices under the Cree LED XLamp and J Series brands. It sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, enterprise, government and other end customers through direct sales force, e-commerce, customer service representatives, on-site field application engineers, independent sales representatives, distributors, integrators, and resellers. The company was formerly known as SMART Global Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Penguin Solutions, Inc. in October 2024. Penguin Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.