FSTR vs. ZEUS, RYI, IPI, PPTA, VZLA, RYAM, PLL, AVD, DC, and TG
Should you be buying L.B. Foster stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of L.B. Foster include Olympic Steel (ZEUS), Ryerson (RYI), Intrepid Potash (IPI), Perpetua Resources (PPTA), Vizsla Silver (VZLA), Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM), Piedmont Lithium (PLL), American Vanguard (AVD), Dakota Gold (DC), and Tredegar (TG). These companies are all part of the "basic materials" sector.
L.B. Foster (NASDAQ:FSTR) and Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, dividends and analyst recommendations.
L.B. Foster pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Olympic Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. L.B. Foster pays out 21.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Olympic Steel pays out 16.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Olympic Steel is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Olympic Steel has higher revenue and earnings than L.B. Foster. Olympic Steel is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than L.B. Foster, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Olympic Steel has a net margin of 2.05% compared to L.B. Foster's net margin of 1.46%. Olympic Steel's return on equity of 6.39% beat L.B. Foster's return on equity.
L.B. Foster currently has a consensus target price of $27.00, indicating a potential downside of 9.15%. Given L.B. Foster's higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe L.B. Foster is more favorable than Olympic Steel.
Olympic Steel received 136 more outperform votes than L.B. Foster when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.26% of users gave Olympic Steel an outperform vote while only 56.59% of users gave L.B. Foster an outperform vote.
80.6% of L.B. Foster shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.1% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.2% of L.B. Foster shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.8% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, L.B. Foster had 23 more articles in the media than Olympic Steel. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for L.B. Foster and 2 mentions for Olympic Steel. Olympic Steel's average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat L.B. Foster's score of 0.77 indicating that Olympic Steel is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
L.B. Foster has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Olympic Steel has a beta of 1.67, suggesting that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Olympic Steel beats L.B. Foster on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding FSTR and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
L.B. Foster Competitors List
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