Head to Head Contrast: Orica (OTCMKTS:OCLDF) & Arcadium Lithium (NYSE:ALTM)

Arcadium Lithium (NYSE:ALTM) and Orica (OTCMKTS:OCLDF) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

27.0% of Arcadium Lithium shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.5% of Orica shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Arcadium Lithium shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Arcadium Lithium pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 245.9%. Orica pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Arcadium Lithium pays out 576.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Orica pays out 9.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Arcadium Lithium and Orica, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Arcadium Lithium	0	1	1	0	2.50
Orica	0	0	0	0	N/A

Arcadium Lithium presently has a consensus price target of $11.00, suggesting a potential upside of 350.82%. Given Arcadium Lithium’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Arcadium Lithium is more favorable than Orica.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Arcadium Lithium and Orica”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Arcadium Lithium	$1.21 billion	2.17	$1.12 billion	$1.04	2.35
Orica	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.63	6.69

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

Profitability

This table compares Arcadium Lithium and Orica’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Arcadium Lithium	N/A	N/A	N/A
Orica	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Arcadium Lithium beats Orica on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Arcadium Lithium

Arcadium Lithium plc engages in the production of lithium chemicals products in the Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It offers battery-grade lithium hydroxide, lithium carbonate, butyllithium and high purity lithium metal for electric vehicles, electronics, agricultural, industrial, greases, polymers, pharmaceutical, battery, and aerospace applications. The company also owns interest in various properties located in Argentina, Canada, and Western Australia. Arcadium Lithium plc was founded in 1944 and is based in Shannon, Ireland.

About Orica

Orica Limited manufactures, distributes, and sells commercial blasting systems, mining and tunnelling support systems, and various chemical products and services in Australia, Peru, the United States, and internationally. The company provides 4D bulk explosives systems, packaged explosives, initiating systems, boosters, and seismic explosive ranges; technical services and solutions; and supplementary services. It also offers automation solutions, including Avatel, a machine equipped with underground development charging system; and secondary breakage and hang up blasting, a tele-remote blasting solution. In addition, the company provides mining chemical products, such as cyanide sparges, emulsifiers, and sodium cyanide, as well as PRO services; digitally enabled benchmarks and insights at various stages of the blasting process; and nitrogen fertilizers, which includes urea ammonium nitrate and ammonia. Further, it offers resources to explore the use of chemical energy in blasting, blasting fundamentals, and properties of explosives and blasting principles; training courses; and geotechnical deformation and convergence monitoring solutions. Additionally, the company provides digital solutions, including MonitorIQ, an advanced processing and analytic software; BlastIQ, BlastVision, FRAGTrack, GroundProbe, RGR-Velox, LOADPlus, RHINO, DRILLMax, DRILLHub, WIREBmr, Axis mining technology, SHOTPlus, OREPro 3D Predict, Fortis Protect, Senatel, Exel Neo, Cyclo, and Bulkmaster. The company serves surface coal, surface metal, iron ore, quarrying, underground mining and construction, construction, civil infrastructure, oil and gas, and agriculture markets. Orica Limited was founded in 1874 and is headquartered in East Melbourne, Australia.