Head to Head Comparison: JFE (OTCMKTS:JFEEF) vs. ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT)

JFE (OTCMKTS:JFEEF) and ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

9.3% of ArcelorMittal shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of ArcelorMittal shares are held by 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.

Volatility and Risk

JFE has a beta of 0.37, indicating that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ArcelorMittal has a beta of 1.58, indicating that its share price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for JFE and ArcelorMittal, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
JFE	0	0	0	0	0.00
ArcelorMittal	0	7	3	0	2.30

ArcelorMittal has a consensus target price of $38.98, suggesting a potential downside of 9.38%. Given ArcelorMittal’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ArcelorMittal is more favorable than JFE.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares JFE and ArcelorMittal”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
JFE	$31.91 billion	0.24	$606.33 million	$0.76	16.05
ArcelorMittal	$62.44 billion	0.56	$1.34 billion	$3.36	12.80

ArcelorMittal has higher revenue and earnings than JFE. ArcelorMittal is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than JFE, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares JFE and ArcelorMittal’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JFE	1.63%	2.95%	1.34%
ArcelorMittal	4.23%	4.94%	2.84%

Summary

ArcelorMittal beats JFE on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About JFE

JFE Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in steel, engineering, and trading businesses in Japan and internationally. Its Steel segment produces and sells various steel products, processed steel products, and raw materials, as well as operates in the transportation, facility maintenance, and construction businesses. The company's Engineering segment handles the engineering of energy, urban environment, steel structures and industrial machinery, recycling, and electricity retailing projects. Its Trading segment purchases, processes, and distributes steel products, raw materials for steel production, nonferrous metal products, food, etc. JFE Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About ArcelorMittal

ArcelorMittal S.A., together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated steel and mining companies in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It offers semi-finished flat products, including slabs; finished flat products comprising plates, hot- and cold-rolled coils and sheets, hot-dipped and electro-galvanized coils and sheets, tinplate, and color coated coils and sheets; semi-finished long products, such as blooms and billets; finished long products consisting of bars, wire-rods, structural sections, rails, sheet piles, and wire-products; and seamless and welded pipes and tubes. The company also provides mining products, such as iron ore lumps, fines, concentrates, pellets, and sinter feeds; and coking coal. It sells its products to various customers in the automotive, appliance, engineering, construction, energy, and machinery industries through a centralized marketing organization, as well as distributors. The company has iron ore mining activities in Brazil, Bosnia, Canada, Liberia, Mexico, South Africa, and Ukraine. ArcelorMittal S.A. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.