United States Lime & Minerals (USLM) Competitors

United States Lime & Minerals (NASDAQ:USLM) and U.S. Silica (NYSE:SLCA) are both small-cap construction companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings, media sentiment, valuation and community ranking.

Which has more volatility and risk, USLM or SLCA?

United States Lime & Minerals has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, U.S. Silica has a beta of 2.23, indicating that its share price is 123% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to USLM or SLCA?

In the previous week, U.S. Silica had 17 more articles in the media than United States Lime & Minerals. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for U.S. Silica and 2 mentions for United States Lime & Minerals. United States Lime & Minerals' average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat U.S. Silica's score of 0.28 indicating that United States Lime & Minerals is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
United States Lime & Minerals	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
U.S. Silica	3 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do institutionals and insiders believe in USLM or SLCA?

27.1% of United States Lime & Minerals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.8% of U.S. Silica shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of United States Lime & Minerals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of U.S. Silica shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend USLM or SLCA?

U.S. Silica has a consensus target price of $15.00, suggesting a potential downside of 5.60%. Given U.S. Silica's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe U.S. Silica is more favorable than United States Lime & Minerals.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United States Lime & Minerals	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A
U.S. Silica	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer USLM or SLCA?

U.S. Silica received 681 more outperform votes than United States Lime & Minerals when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 74.36% of users gave U.S. Silica an outperform vote while only 68.13% of users gave United States Lime & Minerals an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
United States Lime & Minerals	Outperform Votes 186 68.13%	Underperform Votes 87 31.87%
U.S. Silica	Outperform Votes 867 74.36%	Underperform Votes 299 25.64%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, USLM or SLCA?

U.S. Silica has higher revenue and earnings than United States Lime & Minerals. U.S. Silica is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United States Lime & Minerals, 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
United States Lime & Minerals	$281.33M	6.24	$74.55M	$13.06	23.54
U.S. Silica	$1.55B	0.80	$146.93M	$1.87	8.50

Is USLM or SLCA more profitable?

United States Lime & Minerals has a net margin of 26.50% compared to U.S. Silica's net margin of 9.47%. United States Lime & Minerals' return on equity of 20.34% beat U.S. Silica's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United States Lime & Minerals	26.50%	20.34%	18.02%
U.S. Silica	9.47%	18.56%	7.15%

Summary

U.S. Silica beats United States Lime & Minerals on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.