ECL vs. NEM, DOW, NUE, NTR, FCX, SCCO, GOLD, DD, APD, and PPG
Should you be buying Ecolab stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ecolab include Newmont (NEM), DOW (DOW), Nucor (NUE), Nutrien (NTR), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), Southern Copper (SCCO), Barrick Gold (GOLD), DuPont de Nemours (DD), Air Products and Chemicals (APD), and PPG Industries (PPG). These companies are all part of the "basic materials" sector.
Ecolab vs.
Newmont (NYSE:NEM) and Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, media sentiment, profitability, community ranking and earnings.
Ecolab has a net margin of 7.69% compared to Newmont's net margin of -3.60%. Ecolab's return on equity of 18.02% beat Newmont's return on equity.
Newmont has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ecolab has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.
77.6% of Newmont shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.8% of Ecolab shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Newmont shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Ecolab shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Newmont had 8 more articles in the media than Ecolab. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for Newmont and 9 mentions for Ecolab. Ecolab's average media sentiment score of 0.72 beat Newmont's score of 0.68 indicating that Ecolab is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Newmont presently has a consensus target price of $62.21, indicating a potential upside of 27.09%. Ecolab has a consensus target price of $173.63, indicating a potential upside of 6.34%. Given Newmont's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Newmont is more favorable than Ecolab.
Ecolab has higher revenue and earnings than Newmont. Newmont is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ecolab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Newmont received 187 more outperform votes than Ecolab when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.79% of users gave Ecolab an outperform vote while only 64.05% of users gave Newmont an outperform vote.
Newmont pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Ecolab pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Newmont pays out -296.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ecolab pays out 55.5% 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. Ecolab has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Newmont is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Ecolab beats Newmont on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ECL and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE 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.
