Sifting through countless of stocks in the Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Fabrinet or Novanta Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Fabrinet and Novanta Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Fabrinet and Novanta Inc.

Fabrinet provides optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical, and electronic manufacturing services in North America, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and internationally. The company offers a range of advanced optical and electro-mechanical capabilities in the manufacturing process, including process design and engineering, supply chain management, manufacturing, printed circuit board assembly, packaging, integration, final assembly, and testing. Its products include switching products, including reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers, optical amplifiers, modulators, and other optical components and modules that enable network managers to route voice, video, and data communications traffic through fiber optic cables at various wavelengths, speeds, and over various distances. The company’s products also comprise transceivers, tunable lasers, and transponders; and active optical cables, which provide high-speed interconnect capabilities for data centers and computing clusters, as well as Infiniband, Ethernet, fiber channel, and optical backplane connectivity. In addition, it provides solid state, diode-pumped, gas, and fiber lasers used in semiconductor processing, biotechnology and medical device, metrology, and material processing industries; and differential pressure, micro-gyro, fuel, and other sensors used in automobiles, as well as non-contact temperature measurement sensors for the medical industry. Further, the company designs and fabricates application-specific crystals, lenses, prisms, mirrors, laser components, and substrates; and other custom and standard borosilicate, clear fused quartz, and synthetic fused silica glass products. It serves original equipment manufacturers of optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, automotive components, medical devices, and sensors. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in George Town, the Cayman Islands.

Novanta Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides precision medicine, precision manufacturing, medical solutions, robotics and automation solutions, and advanced surgery solutions in the United States and internationally. The company operates Automation Enabling Technologies and Medical Solutions segments. The Precision Medicine and Manufacturing segment designs, manufactures, and markets laser beam steering and scanning solutions, laser sources, robotic and precision motion, robotic end-of-arm tooling, and bearing spindles. This segment serves advanced industrial processes, advanced industrial and medical robotics, other medical and life science automation applications, and medical laser procedures, such as ophthalmology applications. The Medical Solutions segment provides a range of medical grade technologies, including medical insufflators, pumps, and related disposables; imaging, identification and RFID solutions; advanced motion control solutions; and light engines, and integrated operating room technologies. The company was formerly known as GSI Group, Inc. and changed its name to Novanta Inc. in May 2016. Novanta Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is based in Bedford, Massachusetts.

Latest Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components and Fabrinet, Novanta Inc. Stock News

As of September 2, 2026, Fabrinet had a $14.2 billion market capitalization, compared to the Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components median of $1.1 million. Fabrinet’s stock is down 12.8% in 2026, down 8.2% in the previous five trading days and up 17.77% in the past year.

Currently, Fabrinet’s price-earnings ratio is 30.3. Fabrinet’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.6 billion with a 10.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 44.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $18.197 per share for the current fiscal year. Fabrinet does not currently pay a dividend.

As of September 2, 2026, Novanta Inc. had a $5.5 billion market cap, putting it in the 68th percentile of all stocks. Novanta Inc.’s stock is up 23.9% in 2026, up 1.9% in the previous five trading days and up 28.93% in the past year.

Currently, Novanta Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 91.4. Novanta Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.0 billion with a 6.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 10.3%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $3.693 per share for the current fiscal year. Novanta Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare Fabrinet and Novanta Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Fabrinet and Novanta Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Fabrinet and Novanta Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Fabrinet	FN	F
Novanta Inc.	NOVT	F

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Fabrinet has a Value Score of 20, which is Ultra Expensive. Novanta Inc. has a Value Score of 7, which is Ultra Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Fabrinet or Novanta Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Fabrinet or Novanta Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

Fabrinet and Novanta Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Fabrinet	FN	C
Novanta Inc.	NOVT	B

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Fabrinet has a Quality Score of 58, which is Average. Novanta Inc. has a Quality Score of 67, which is Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: Novanta Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, Novanta Inc. has a better overall quality grade than Fabrinet. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, Novanta Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Fabrinet and Novanta Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Fabrinet	FN	D
Novanta Inc.	NOVT	C

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Fabrinet has a Momentum Score of 34, which is Weak. Novanta Inc. has a Momentum Score of 50, which is Average.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Fabrinet or Novanta Inc. has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Fabrinet or Novanta Inc. is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other Fabrinet and Novanta Inc. Grades

In addition to Value, Momentum and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Estimate Revisions.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Fabrinet and Novanta Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Fabrinet or Novanta Inc. Stock?

Overall, Fabrinet stock has a Value Score of 20, Momentum Score of 34 and Quality Score of 58.

Novanta Inc. stock has a Value Score of 7, Momentum Score of 50 and Quality Score of 67.

Comparing Fabrinet and Novanta Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.