United States Lime & Minerals (USLM) Competitors

CEMEX (NYSE:CX) and United States Lime & Minerals (NASDAQ:USLM) are both mid-cap construction companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, community ranking, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Does the media favor CX or USLM?

In the previous week, CEMEX had 4 more articles in the media than United States Lime & Minerals. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for CEMEX and 1 mentions for United States Lime & Minerals. United States Lime & Minerals' average media sentiment score of 1.95 beat CEMEX's score of 0.44 indicating that United States Lime & Minerals is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CEMEX	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
United States Lime & Minerals	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do analysts recommend CX or USLM?

CEMEX currently has a consensus target price of $7.82, indicating a potential upside of 19.61%. Given CEMEX's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe CEMEX is more favorable than United States Lime & Minerals.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CEMEX	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
United States Lime & Minerals	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Does the MarketBeat Community favor CX or USLM?

CEMEX received 356 more outperform votes than United States Lime & Minerals when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 67.62% of users gave United States Lime & Minerals an outperform vote while only 63.86% of users gave CEMEX an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
CEMEX	Outperform Votes 546 63.86%	Underperform Votes 309 36.14%
United States Lime & Minerals	Outperform Votes 190 67.62%	Underperform Votes 91 32.38%

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, CX or USLM?

CEMEX has higher revenue and earnings than United States Lime & Minerals. CEMEX is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United States Lime & Minerals, 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
CEMEX	$16.20B	0.58	$938.81M	$0.63	10.37
United States Lime & Minerals	$317.72M	8.57	$108.84M	$3.79	25.09

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of CX or USLM?

83.0% of CEMEX shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.1% of United States Lime & Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of CEMEX shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of United States Lime & Minerals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is CX or USLM a better dividend stock?

CEMEX pays an annual dividend of $0.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. United States Lime & Minerals pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. CEMEX pays out 9.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. United States Lime & Minerals pays out 5.3% 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.

Which has more risk and volatility, CX or USLM?

CEMEX has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United States Lime & Minerals has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CX or USLM more profitable?

United States Lime & Minerals has a net margin of 34.27% compared to CEMEX's net margin of 5.70%. United States Lime & Minerals' return on equity of 24.55% beat CEMEX's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CEMEX	5.70%	7.78%	3.41%
United States Lime & Minerals	34.27%	24.55%	22.22%

Summary

CEMEX and United States Lime & Minerals tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.