Piedmont Lithium (PLL) Competitors

Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ:PLL) and Columbus McKinnon (NASDAQ:CMCO) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, community ranking, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Do analysts recommend PLL or CMCO?

Piedmont Lithium presently has a consensus target price of $20.63, suggesting a potential upside of 218.78%. Columbus McKinnon has a consensus target price of $44.00, suggesting a potential upside of 171.10%. Given Piedmont Lithium's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Piedmont Lithium is more favorable than Columbus McKinnon.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Piedmont Lithium	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.43
Columbus McKinnon	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has more volatility & risk, PLL or CMCO?

Piedmont Lithium has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Columbus McKinnon has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, PLL or CMCO?

Columbus McKinnon has higher revenue and earnings than Piedmont Lithium. Piedmont Lithium is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Columbus McKinnon, 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	1.42	-$21.78M	-$3.32	-1.95
Columbus McKinnon	$981.64M	0.47	$46.62M	$0.33	49.18

Is PLL or CMCO more profitable?

Columbus McKinnon has a net margin of 0.95% compared to Piedmont Lithium's net margin of -64.84%. Columbus McKinnon's return on equity of 8.64% beat Piedmont Lithium's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Piedmont Lithium	-64.84%	-17.74%	-15.66%
Columbus McKinnon	0.95%	8.64%	4.30%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor PLL or CMCO?

Columbus McKinnon received 76 more outperform votes than Piedmont Lithium when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.89% of users gave Columbus McKinnon an outperform vote while only 52.48% of users gave Piedmont Lithium an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Piedmont Lithium	Outperform Votes 212 52.48%	Underperform Votes 192 47.52%
Columbus McKinnon	Outperform Votes 288 60.89%	Underperform Votes 185 39.11%

Is PLL or CMCO a better dividend stock?

Piedmont Lithium pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.9%. Columbus McKinnon pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Piedmont Lithium pays out -36.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Columbus McKinnon pays out 84.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Piedmont Lithium is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media refer more to PLL or CMCO?

In the previous week, Piedmont Lithium and Piedmont Lithium both had 3 articles in the media. Piedmont Lithium's average media sentiment score of 0.52 beat Columbus McKinnon's score of 0.43 indicating that Piedmont Lithium is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Piedmont Lithium	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Columbus McKinnon	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in PLL or CMCO?

52.2% of Piedmont Lithium shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.0% of Columbus McKinnon shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Piedmont Lithium shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Columbus McKinnon shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Columbus McKinnon beats Piedmont Lithium on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.