Itron (ITRI) Competitors

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) and Coherent (NYSE:COHR) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Do analysts prefer ITRI or COHR?

Itron currently has a consensus target price of $127.64, suggesting a potential upside of 25.56%. Coherent has a consensus target price of $109.27, suggesting a potential upside of 96.95%. Given Coherent's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Coherent is more favorable than Itron.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Itron	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.73
Coherent	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, ITRI or COHR?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Itron	$2.44B	1.90	$96.92M	$5.18	19.62
Coherent	$5.31B	1.62	-$156.15M	-$0.41	-135.32

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ITRI or COHR?

Itron received 20 more outperform votes than Coherent when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.91% of users gave Itron an outperform vote while only 62.84% of users gave Coherent an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Itron	Outperform Votes 590 64.91%	Underperform Votes 319 35.09%
Coherent	Outperform Votes 570 62.84%	Underperform Votes 337 37.16%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ITRI or COHR?

96.2% of Itron shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.3% of Coherent shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Itron shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Coherent shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ITRI or COHR more profitable?

Itron has a net margin of 9.37% compared to Coherent's net margin of 1.28%. Itron's return on equity of 19.03% beat Coherent's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Itron	9.37%	19.03%	8.53%
Coherent	1.28%	8.29%	3.25%

Which has more risk and volatility, ITRI or COHR?

Itron has a beta of 1.39, meaning that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Coherent has a beta of 1.88, meaning that its share price is 88% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer ITRI or COHR?

In the previous week, Itron had 10 more articles in the media than Coherent. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Itron and 6 mentions for Coherent. Itron's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat Coherent's score of 0.24 indicating that Itron is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Itron	11 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Coherent	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Itron beats Coherent on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.