Financial Analysis: Astera Labs (NASDAQ:ALAB) vs. nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR)

nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) and Astera Labs (NASDAQ:ALAB) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for nLIGHT and Astera Labs, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
nLIGHT	0	0	4	0	3.00
Astera Labs	0	1	11	1	3.00

nLIGHT presently has a consensus price target of $15.13, indicating a potential upside of 110.07%. Astera Labs has a consensus price target of $109.25, indicating a potential upside of 85.30%. Given nLIGHT’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe nLIGHT is more favorable than Astera Labs.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.9% of nLIGHT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.5% of Astera Labs shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of nLIGHT shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares nLIGHT and Astera Labs”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
nLIGHT	$198.55 million	1.78	-$41.67 million	($1.26)	-5.71
Astera Labs	$396.29 million	24.13	-$83.42 million	($1.73)	-34.08

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

Profitability

This table compares nLIGHT and Astera Labs’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
nLIGHT	-24.16%	-19.53%	-15.91%
Astera Labs	-21.05%	-10.40%	-9.56%

Summary

Astera Labs beats nLIGHT on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About nLIGHT

nLIGHT, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor and fiber lasers for industrial, microfabrication, and aerospace and defense applications. The company operates in two segments, Laser Products and Advanced Development. It offers semiconductor lasers with various ranges of power levels, wavelengths, and output fiber sizes; and programmable and serviceable fiber lasers for use in industrial and aerospace and defense applications. The company also provides laser sensors, including light detection and ranging technologies for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications; and fiber amplifiers, beam combination, and control systems for use in high-energy laser systems in directed energy applications. It sells its products through direct sales force in the United States, China, South Korea, and European countries, as well as through independent sales representatives and distributors in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. The company was formerly known as nLight Photonics Corporation and changed its name to nLIGHT, Inc. in January 2016. nLIGHT, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Camas, Washington.

About Astera Labs

Astera Labs, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells semiconductor-based connectivity solutions for cloud and AI infrastructure. Its Intelligent Connectivity Platform is comprised of a portfolio of data, network, and memory connectivity products, which are built on a unifying software-defined architecture that enables customers to deploy and operate high performance cloud and AI infrastructure at scale. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Santa Clara, California.