Critical Survey: SPI Energy (NASDAQ:SPI) versus Sequans Communications (NYSE:SQNS)

SPI Energy (NASDAQ:SPI) and Sequans Communications (NYSE:SQNS) are both small-cap oils/energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

SPI Energy has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sequans Communications has a beta of 0.24, indicating that its share price is 76% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for SPI Energy and Sequans Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SPI Energy	0	1	0	0	2.00
Sequans Communications	0	0	1	0	3.00

Sequans Communications has a consensus price target of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 170.27%. Given Sequans Communications’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Sequans Communications is more favorable than SPI Energy.

Profitability

This table compares SPI Energy and Sequans Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SPI Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sequans Communications	-140.08%	-1,229.91%	-38.35%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares SPI Energy and Sequans Communications”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SPI Energy	$177.52 million	0.08	-$33.42 million	($0.88)	-0.48
Sequans Communications	$33.62 million	2.05	-$40.99 million	($0.79)	-1.41

SPI Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Sequans Communications. Sequans Communications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SPI Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

1.7% of SPI Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.3% of Sequans Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. 24.6% of SPI Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.4% of Sequans Communications shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

SPI Energy beats Sequans Communications on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SPI Energy

SPI Energy Co., Ltd. provides photovoltaic and electric vehicle (EV) solutions for business, residential, government, and utility customers and investors in Australia, Japan, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Greece. The company offers engineering, procurement, and construction services to independent power developers and producers, and commercial and industrial companies. It also develops, owns, and operates solar projects that sell electricity to power companies and other electricity off-takers, including government-owned utility companies. In addition, the company sells self-assembled solar modules, forklifts, pre-development solar projects, component and charging stations, as well as offers shipping, delivery, engineering, and maintenance services. As of April, 2022, it owned and operated 17.51 megawatts of solar projects. The company is headquartered in Sacramento, California.

About Sequans Communications

Sequans Communications S.A. engages in the fabless designing, developing, and supplying of cellular semiconductor solutions for massive and broadband Internet of Things (IoT) markets in Taiwan, Korea, China, rest of Asia, Germany, the United States, and internationally. It offers baseband solutions for use in encoding and decoding data based on 4G and 5G protocols for wireless processing platform for a cellular device; RF transceivers used to transmit and receive wireless transmissions; highly integrated SoC solutions that combine various functions into a single die or package; and LTE modules. The company also provides software, including source code and tools to enable manufacturers to integrate their solutions into their devices; and design support services. The company serves OEMs and ODMs Customers, as well as 4G and 5G wireless carriers. Sequans Communications S.A. was incorporated in 2003 and is based in Paris, France.