Semiconductor Equipment & Materials · market cap $2.2b. Down 47% from 52-week high of $113.58 — deep drawdown territory. Revenue growing +12%, comfortably above the S&P median. PEG 0.25 — paying under fair value for the growth rate. 8 sell-side analysts rate this a Strong Buy with a mean 1-yr target of $94.13 (implying +57% upside).
Moat
Semiconductor moat is process-design IP plus customer qualification timelines — once designed in, the company captures multiple product cycles before a competitor can displace.
Risk
Free cash flow is negative (-$26m) — capital raises or debt issuance likely required; dilution / leverage risk. Currently unprofitable (margin -4.0%) — path to GAAP profitability is the core thesis risk. Down 47% from the 52-week high — the market is pricing in something the screen can't see; verify the bear case before sizing up.
TSMTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
Semiconductors · $453.31 · beta 1.24
Why now
Semiconductors · market cap $2.4T. 7% off the 52-week high of $487.47. Revenue growing +32% — in hypergrowth territory. PEG 0.87 — paying under fair value for the growth rate. 20 sell-side analysts rate this a Strong Buy with a mean 1-yr target of $555.01 (implying +22% upside).
Moat
Net margin 50% is exceptional — pricing-power territory rare outside premium software, branded staples, and specialty pharma. ROE 40% — top-decile capital efficiency. Either pricing leverage, low capital intensity, or aggressive buybacks; the durability story depends on which. $2.4T market cap places it among the largest companies in the sector — distribution, R&D, and customer-acquisition costs amortize across a base peers can't replicate.
Risk
Trailing P/E 33x sits well above the S&P median (~20x) — multiple compression is a real risk if revenue growth decelerates. P/S 16.9x embeds aggressive forward growth — disappointing top-line guidance would compress the multiple hard. Semiconductor cyclicality — inventory corrections compress margins faster than analysts model. Monitor channel inventory and book-to-bill ratios as leading indicators.
Verdict — model-derived comparison
Generating verdict… typically 5–10 seconds
Not investment advice. The Bull Rankings publishes a quantitative ranking model and accompanying analysis for general informational purposes only. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security; nothing is personalized to your circumstances, risk tolerance, or tax situation. Investing carries the risk of loss — invest at your own risk and consider consulting a licensed financial professional before acting on anything you read here. See terms and methodology for full disclosures.
Where ICHR and TSM diverge
On the headline score the gap is 51.9 points in favor of TSM. The widest single difference is Quality, where TSM leads by 68.2 points.
QualityICHR 21.1 · TSM 89.3TSM +68.2
ValueICHR 7.2 · TSM 62.9TSM +55.7
GrowthICHR 58.1 · TSM 93.6TSM +35.5
Pillars run 0–100. Value is judged against each company's own sector, so a Value score is a statement about a company relative to its own industry rather than to the other name here. A wide Value gap usually means the market already prices the difference in quality or growth — which is the trade-off this comparison comes down to.
Common questions
Is TSM or ICHR the better stock?
TSM scores higher: TSM 72.6, ICHR 20.7 out of 100 on the Bull Rankings quality-growth score, which blends business quality, growth and valuation into one number. A higher score means a stronger business at a more reasonable price — it is not a price target or a recommendation.
Where do TSM and ICHR differ most?
The widest gap is quality, where TSM leads by 68 points on the 0–100 pillar scale. TSM leads all three pillars, so the gap is broad rather than a single-measure difference.
How are TSM and ICHR scored?
Each carries the same 0–100 quality-growth score used everywhere on the site, built from three pillars — quality (profitability and returns on capital), growth (revenue and earnings), and value (what you pay for them) — combined as a geometric mean, so a weak pillar cannot be papered over by a strong one.
How current is this comparison?
The whole universe is re-scored every trading day after the US market close, so the scores and fundamentals here reflect the latest published edition.