Piedmont Lithium (PLL) Competitors

Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ:PLL) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Is PLL or ALB more profitable?

Albemarle has a net margin of -18.61% compared to Piedmont Lithium's net margin of -50.60%. Albemarle's return on equity of -1.87% beat Piedmont Lithium's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Piedmont Lithium	-50.60%	-18.57%	-16.06%
Albemarle	-18.61%	-1.87%	-0.89%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in PLL or ALB?

52.2% of Piedmont Lithium shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of Albemarle shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Piedmont Lithium shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Albemarle shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, PLL or ALB?

Piedmont Lithium has a beta of 0.32, meaning that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Albemarle has a beta of 1.65, meaning that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate PLL or ALB?

Piedmont Lithium presently has a consensus target price of $10.94, suggesting a potential upside of 49.32%. Albemarle has a consensus target price of $86.47, suggesting a potential upside of 13.73%. Given Piedmont Lithium's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Piedmont Lithium is more favorable than Albemarle.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Piedmont Lithium	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20
Albemarle	4 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.94

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, PLL or ALB?

Piedmont Lithium has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Albemarle. Albemarle is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Piedmont Lithium, 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
Piedmont Lithium	$99.88M	1.61	-$64.76M	-$2.56	-2.86
Albemarle	$4.99B	1.79	-$1.18B	-$9.32	-8.16

Does the media favor PLL or ALB?

In the previous week, Albemarle had 14 more articles in the media than Piedmont Lithium. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Albemarle and 1 mentions for Piedmont Lithium. Piedmont Lithium's average media sentiment score of 1.84 beat Albemarle's score of 1.05 indicating that Piedmont Lithium is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Piedmont Lithium	Very Positive
Albemarle	Positive

Summary

Albemarle beats Piedmont Lithium on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.