NL Industries (NL) Competitors

Steelcase (NYSE:SCS) and NL Industries (NYSE:NL) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends and risk.

Is SCS or NL more profitable?

NL Industries has a net margin of 38.69% compared to Steelcase's net margin of 4.02%. NL Industries' return on equity of 14.74% beat Steelcase's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Steelcase	4.02%	14.41%	5.79%
NL Industries	38.69%	14.74%	10.09%

Is SCS or NL a better dividend stock?

Steelcase pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. NL Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Steelcase pays out 37.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NL Industries pays out 26.7% 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. NL Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts rate SCS or NL?

Steelcase currently has a consensus target price of $17.00, indicating a potential upside of 28.50%. NL Industries has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential downside of 24.72%. Given Steelcase's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Steelcase is more favorable than NL Industries.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Steelcase	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
NL Industries	1 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.00

Which has more risk & volatility, SCS or NL?

Steelcase has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NL Industries has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to SCS or NL?

In the previous week, Steelcase had 1 more articles in the media than NL Industries. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for Steelcase and 0 mentions for NL Industries. Steelcase's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat NL Industries' score of 0.00 indicating that Steelcase is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Steelcase	Positive
NL Industries	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SCS or NL?

Steelcase received 123 more outperform votes than NL Industries when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.34% of users gave Steelcase an outperform vote while only 59.75% of users gave NL Industries an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Steelcase	Outperform Votes 313 65.34%	Underperform Votes 166 34.66%
NL Industries	Outperform Votes 190 59.75%	Underperform Votes 128 40.25%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in SCS or NL?

92.4% of Steelcase shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.7% of NL Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 13.0% of Steelcase shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of NL Industries shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better valuation & earnings, SCS or NL?

Steelcase has higher revenue and earnings than NL Industries. NL Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Steelcase, 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
Steelcase	$3.16B	0.48	$81.10M	$1.06	12.48
NL Industries	$161.30M	2.41	-$2.31M	$1.20	6.64

Summary

Steelcase beats NL Industries on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.