WFG vs. ICL, CMC, ATI, OLN, AGI, ESI, PAAS, NEU, AXTA, and HMY
Should you be buying West Fraser Timber stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of West Fraser Timber include ICL Group (ICL), Commercial Metals (CMC), ATI (ATI), Olin (OLN), Alamos Gold (AGI), Element Solutions (ESI), Pan American Silver (PAAS), NewMarket (NEU), Axalta Coating Systems (AXTA), and Harmony Gold Mining (HMY). These companies are all part of the "basic materials" sector.
ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) and West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.
ICL Group has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Fraser Timber has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.
ICL Group received 205 more outperform votes than West Fraser Timber when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 76.36% of users gave West Fraser Timber an outperform vote while only 55.63% of users gave ICL Group an outperform vote.
ICL Group presently has a consensus price target of $5.75, suggesting a potential upside of 26.93%. West Fraser Timber has a consensus price target of $106.25, suggesting a potential upside of 36.32%. Given ICL Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe West Fraser Timber is more favorable than ICL Group.
ICL Group pays an annual dividend of $0.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. West Fraser Timber pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. ICL Group pays out 37.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. West Fraser Timber pays out -49.6% 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. ICL Group has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. ICL Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
ICL Group has higher revenue and earnings than West Fraser Timber. West Fraser Timber is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ICL Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
ICL Group has a net margin of 8.65% compared to ICL Group's net margin of -1.39%. West Fraser Timber's return on equity of 12.04% beat ICL Group's return on equity.
13.4% of ICL Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.2% of West Fraser Timber shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of ICL Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of West Fraser Timber shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, West Fraser Timber had 10 more articles in the media than ICL Group. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for West Fraser Timber and 4 mentions for ICL Group. ICL Group's average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat West Fraser Timber's score of 0.82 indicating that West Fraser Timber is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
ICL Group and West Fraser Timber tied by winning 11 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get West Fraser Timber News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for WFG and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WFG 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 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.
West Fraser Timber Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
