Stepan (SCL) Competitors

Balchem (NASDAQ:BCPC) and Stepan (NYSE:SCL) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, risk, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Do analysts recommend BCPC or SCL?

Balchem presently has a consensus target price of $190.00, indicating a potential upside of 14.81%. Given Balchem's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Balchem is more favorable than Stepan.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Balchem	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Stepan	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, BCPC or SCL?

Balchem has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Stepan. Stepan is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Balchem, 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
Balchem	$942.38M	5.71	$108.54M	$3.72	44.49
Stepan	$2.19B	0.69	$40.20M	$2.01	33.39

Which has more volatility & risk, BCPC or SCL?

Balchem has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stepan has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BCPC or SCL a better dividend stock?

Balchem pays an annual dividend of $0.87 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Stepan pays an annual dividend of $1.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Balchem pays out 23.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Stepan pays out 76.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Balchem has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years and Stepan has increased its dividend for 57 consecutive years. Stepan is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor BCPC or SCL?

Balchem received 140 more outperform votes than Stepan when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.84% of users gave Balchem an outperform vote while only 55.33% of users gave Stepan an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Balchem	Outperform Votes 389 66.84%	Underperform Votes 193 33.16%
Stepan	Outperform Votes 249 55.33%	Underperform Votes 201 44.67%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of BCPC or SCL?

87.9% of Balchem shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.7% of Stepan shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Balchem shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.9% of Stepan shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is BCPC or SCL more profitable?

Balchem has a net margin of 12.90% compared to Stepan's net margin of 2.10%. Balchem's return on equity of 10.99% beat Stepan's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Balchem	12.90%	10.99%	7.65%
Stepan	2.10%	4.56%	2.32%

Does the media refer more to BCPC or SCL?

In the previous week, Stepan had 1 more articles in the media than Balchem. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Stepan and 5 mentions for Balchem. Balchem's average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat Stepan's score of 0.48 indicating that Balchem is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Balchem	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Stepan	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Balchem beats Stepan on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.