Analyzing Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT) & Croda International (OTCMKTS:COIHY)

Croda International (OTCMKTS:COIHY) and Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Croda International and Ingevity, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Croda International	2	1	0	2	2.40
Ingevity	1	2	1	0	2.00

Ingevity has a consensus price target of $67.50, indicating a potential downside of 6.46%. Given Ingevity’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ingevity is more favorable than Croda International.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Croda International and Ingevity”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Croda International	$2.08 billion	2.64	$202.55 million	N/A	N/A
Ingevity	$1.41 billion	1.85	-$430.30 million	($1.82)	-39.65

Croda International has higher revenue and earnings than Ingevity.

Volatility and Risk

Croda International has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ingevity has a beta of 1.34, indicating that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Croda International and Ingevity’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Croda International	N/A	N/A	N/A
Ingevity	-5.14%	103.69%	9.17%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.1% of Croda International shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ingevity shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Ingevity shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Ingevity beats Croda International on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Croda International

Croda International Plc engages in the consumer care, life science, and industrial specialty businesses in in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Asia, and Latin America. The company offers speciality and active ingredients across beauty care, beauty actives, and home care products, as well as fragrances and flavours. It also provides biologics drug delivery, adjuvant systems, small molecule, protein, and nucleic acid delivery platforms, as well as purity materials for pharmaceutical formulations. In addition, the company offers crop protection and seed enhancement related solutions. Croda International Plc was incorporated in 1925 and is headquartered in Goole, the United Kingdom.

About Ingevity

Ingevity Corporation manufactures and sells activated carbon products, derivative specialty chemicals, and engineered polymers in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. It operates through three segments: Performance Materials, Performance Chemicals, and Advanced Polymer Technologies. The Performance Materials segment engineers, manufactures, and sells hardwood-based and chemically activated carbon products for use in gasoline vapor emission control systems in cars, motorcycles, trucks, and boats. This segment also produces other activated carbon products for food, water, beverage, and chemical purification applications. The Performance Chemicals segment consists of road technologies and industrial specialties. This segment's products are used in pavement construction, pavement preservation, pavement reconstruction and recycling, road markings, agrochemical dispersants, paper chemicals, and other industrial uses. The Advanced Polymer Technologies segment produces caprolactone and caprolactone-based specialty polymers for use in coatings, resins, elastomers, adhesives, bioplastics, and medical devices. It serves automotive parts and components manufacturers through sales representatives and distributors. The company was formerly known as WestRock Company, Specialty Chemicals Business and changed its name to Ingevity Corporation in September 2015. Ingevity Corporation was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in North Charleston, South Carolina.