WFG vs. ICL, AGI, CMC, HMY, OLN, ESI, CBT, VVV, NEU, and CRS
Should you be buying West Fraser Timber stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of West Fraser Timber include ICL Group (ICL), Alamos Gold (AGI), Commercial Metals (CMC), Harmony Gold Mining (HMY), Olin (OLN), Element Solutions (ESI), Cabot (CBT), Valvoline (VVV), NewMarket (NEU), and Carpenter Technology (CRS). 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 stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, community ranking, profitability, valuation and risk.
ICL Group currently has a consensus price target of $5.75, indicating a potential upside of 20.55%. West Fraser Timber has a consensus price target of $106.25, indicating a potential upside of 30.80%. 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 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.
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 hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
ICL Group pays an annual dividend of $0.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. West Fraser Timber pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. ICL Group pays out 51.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. West Fraser Timber pays out -99.2% 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. West Fraser Timber has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.
ICL Group has a net margin of 6.68% compared to ICL Group's net margin of -1.39%. West Fraser Timber's return on equity of 9.05% beat ICL Group's return on equity.
ICL Group has a beta of 1.25, suggesting that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Fraser Timber has a beta of 1.18, suggesting that its stock price is 18% 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.
In the previous week, West Fraser Timber had 1 more articles in the media than ICL Group. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for West Fraser Timber and 0 mentions for ICL Group. ICL Group's average media sentiment score of 1.92 beat West Fraser Timber's score of 0.50 indicating that West Fraser Timber is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
West Fraser Timber beats ICL Group on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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.
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