Reviewing Lsb Industries (NYSE:LXU) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB)

Lsb Industries (NYSE:LXU) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Lsb Industries has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Albemarle has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lsb Industries and Albemarle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lsb Industries	7.16%	8.91%	3.96%
Albemarle	-5.00%	5.22%	2.51%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.7% of Lsb Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of Albemarle shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Lsb Industries shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Albemarle shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Lsb Industries and Albemarle, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lsb Industries	0	5	0	0	2.00
Albemarle	1	11	14	1	2.56

Lsb Industries presently has a consensus target price of $15.33, indicating a potential upside of 22.72%. Albemarle has a consensus target price of $203.04, indicating a potential upside of 30.38%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Lsb Industries.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Lsb Industries and Albemarle”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lsb Industries	$641.26 million	1.40	$24.61 million	$0.63	19.83
Albemarle	$5.14 billion	3.57	-$510.63 million	($3.41)	-45.67

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

Summary

Albemarle beats Lsb Industries on 8 of the 15 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 Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Specialties segment provides bromine-based specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals; lithium specialties, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride; develops and manufactures cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators. The Ketjen segment offers clean fuels technologies (CFT), which is composed of hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) together with isomerization and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives; and performance catalyst solutions (PCS), which is composed of organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.