Reviewing Gulf Resources (NASDAQ:GURE) & Lsb Industries (NYSE:LXU)

Lsb Industries (NYSE:LXU) and Gulf Resources (NASDAQ:GURE) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Lsb Industries and Gulf Resources, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lsb Industries	1	1	2	0	2.25
Gulf Resources	1	0	0	0	1.00

Lsb Industries presently has a consensus price target of $9.83, indicating a potential upside of 15.96%. Given Lsb Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Lsb Industries is more favorable than Gulf Resources.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

73.7% of Lsb Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.3% of Gulf Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.3% of Lsb Industries shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.2% of Gulf Resources shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Lsb Industries has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gulf Resources has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lsb Industries and Gulf Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lsb Industries	-0.11%	2.70%	1.16%
Gulf Resources	-286.77%	-20.62%	-17.50%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Lsb Industries and Gulf Resources”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lsb Industries	$522.40 million	1.17	-$19.35 million	($0.01)	-848.00
Gulf Resources	$7.66 million	0.66	-$58.94 million	($48.05)	-0.08

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

Summary

Lsb Industries beats Gulf Resources on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lsb Industries

LSB Industries, Inc. engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of chemical products. The company provides nitrogen-based fertilizers, such as ammonia, fertilizer grade high density ammonium nitrate (HDAN), and urea ammonia nitrate for fertilizer for corn, pastures, and other crops, as well as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) fertilizer blends application. It also offers high purity and commercial grade ammonia, high purity ammonium nitrate, sulfuric acids, mixed nitrating acids, carbon dioxide, and diesel exhaust fluids, as well as concentrated, and blended and regular nitric acids for various applications, including semiconductor, nylon, and polyurethane intermediates, ammonium nitrate, and metal processing; chemical feedstocks, emissions abatement, water treatments, and refrigerants; pulp and paper, aluminum, water treatment, metals, and vanadium processing; abatement for diesel vehicles; and food refrigeration, dry ice, and enhanced oil recovery. In addition, the company provides industrial grade and low density ammonium nitrate, and ammonium nitrate for explosives mining, quarries, and other blasting activities. It sells its products through distributors, as well as directly to end customers in the United States and other parts of North America. The company serves to the agricultural, industrial, and mining markets. LSB Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

About Gulf Resources

Gulf Resources, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manufactures and trades bromine and crude salt, chemical products, and natural gas in the People’s Republic of China. The company operates through four segments: Bromine, Crude salt, Chemical products, and Natural gas segments. It also provides bromine for use in bromine compounds, intermediates in organic synthesis, brominated flame retardants, fumigants, water purification compounds, dyes, medicines, and disinfectants. In addition, the company offers crude salt for use as a material in alkali and chlorine alkali production for use in the chemical, food and beverage, and other industries. In addition, it manufactures and sells chemical products for use in oil and gas field exploration, oil and gas distribution, oil field drilling, papermaking chemical agents, and inorganic chemicals, as well as materials that are used for human and animal antibiotics. The company is based in Shouguang, the People’s Republic of China.