Comparing Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Enlightify (NYSE:ENFY)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Albemarle and Enlightify, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Albemarle	1	10	15	1	2.59
Enlightify	1	0	0	0	1.00

Albemarle currently has a consensus price target of $202.54, indicating a potential upside of 26.49%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Enlightify.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.9% of Albemarle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of Enlightify shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Albemarle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of Enlightify shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Albemarle	-5.00%	5.22%	2.51%
Enlightify	-22.98%	-18.78%	-11.03%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Albemarle and Enlightify”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle	$5.14 billion	3.67	-$510.63 million	($3.41)	-46.96
Enlightify	$79.21 million	0.00	-$28.41 million	($0.86)	-0.01

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

Volatility and Risk

Albemarle has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Enlightify has a beta of -4.76, indicating that its stock price is 576% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Albemarle beats Enlightify on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Enlightify

Enlightify, Inc. engages in the research, development, production, and sale of various types of fertilizers and agricultural products. It operates through the following segments: Jinong, Gufeng, and Yuxing. The Jinong segment includes fertilizer products, with focus on humic acid-based compound fertilizer. The Gufeng segment refers to the compound fertilizer, blended fertilizer, organic compound fertilizer, slow-release fertilizers, highly concentrated water-soluble fertilizers, and mixed organic-inorganic compound fertilizer. The Yuxing segment develops and produces agricultural products, such as top-grade fruits, vegetables, flowers, and colored seedlings. The company was founded by Tao Li on February 6, 1987 and is headquartered in Xi’an, China.