Comparing Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) and Peraso (NASDAQ:PRSO)

Peraso (NASDAQ:PRSO) and Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

Peraso has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lam Research has a beta of 1.85, indicating that its stock price is 85% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.6% of Peraso shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.6% of Lam Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Peraso shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Lam Research shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Peraso and Lam Research, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peraso	1	0	2	0	2.33
Lam Research	0	6	26	0	2.81

Peraso currently has a consensus target price of $3.08, suggesting a potential upside of 672.77%. Lam Research has a consensus target price of $354.55, suggesting a potential upside of 49.46%. Given Peraso’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Peraso is more favorable than Lam Research.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Peraso and Lam Research”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peraso	$12.19 million	0.49	-$4.75 million	($0.68)	-0.59
Lam Research	$23.23 billion	12.75	$7.27 billion	$6.71	35.35

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

Profitability

This table compares Peraso and Lam Research’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peraso	-85.63%	-223.38%	-153.27%
Lam Research	32.34%	72.15%	36.92%

Summary

Lam Research beats Peraso on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Peraso

Peraso Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, develops, markets, and sells semiconductor devices and modules. The company's products include millimeter wavelength (mmWave) ICs, including baseband IC, various mmWave radio frequency, integrated circuits, as well as associated antenna technology; and mmWave antenna modules. It also provides accelerator engine products, comprising bandwidth engine for high-performance applications where throughput is critical; and quad partition rate, which allows for parallel accesses to multiple partitions of the memory simultaneously. Its mmWave products are used for various applications, such as multi-gigabit point-to-point (PtMP) wireless links; and fixed wireless access in the 5G operating bands, as well as consumer applications, such as wireless video streaming, and untethered augmented reality and virtual reality. The company also licenses intellectual property, as well as offers non-recurring engineering services. It markets its products through direct sales personnel, as well as sells representatives and distributors. The company was formerly knowns as MoSys, Inc. and changed its name to Peraso Inc. in December 2021. Peraso Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is based in San Jose, California.

About Lam Research

Lam Research Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers ALTUS systems to deposit conformal films for tungsten metallization applications; SABRE electrochemical deposition products for copper interconnect transition that offers copper damascene manufacturing; SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing products for film treatments; and VECTOR plasma-enhanced CVD ALD products. It also provides SPEED gapfill high-density plasma chemical vapor deposition products; and Striker single-wafer atomic layer deposition products for dielectric film solutions. In addition, the company offers Flex for dielectric etch applications; Kiyo for conductor etch applications; Syndion for through-silicon via etch applications; and Versys metal products for metal etch processes. Further, it provides Coronus bevel clean products to enhance die yield; Da Vinci, DV-Prime, EOS, and SP series products to address various wafer cleaning applications; and Metryx mass metrology systems for high precision in-line mass measurement in semiconductor wafer manufacturing. The company sells its products and services to semiconductors industry in the United States, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and internationally. The company was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.