Contrasting Energy Fuels (NYSE:UUUU) and Smart Sand (NASDAQ:SND)

Smart Sand (NASDAQ:SND) and Energy Fuels (NYSE:UUUU) are both small-cap oils/energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, valuation and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

35.2% of Smart Sand shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.2% of Energy Fuels shares are owned by institutional investors. 32.3% of Smart Sand shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Energy Fuels shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Smart Sand and Energy Fuels, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smart Sand	0	2	0	0	2.00
Energy Fuels	0	2	2	0	2.50

Smart Sand presently has a consensus price target of $2.63, indicating a potential upside of 12.66%. Energy Fuels has a consensus price target of $8.50, indicating a potential upside of 25.00%. Given Energy Fuels’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Energy Fuels is more favorable than Smart Sand.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Smart Sand and Energy Fuels”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Smart Sand	$281.96 million	0.35	$4.65 million	($0.14)	-16.64
Energy Fuels	$38.66 million	34.59	$99.86 million	($0.22)	-30.91

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

Risk & Volatility

Smart Sand has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Energy Fuels has a beta of 1.6, meaning that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Smart Sand and Energy Fuels’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smart Sand	-1.96%	-1.74%	-1.23%
Energy Fuels	-90.40%	-9.16%	-8.67%

About Smart Sand

Smart Sand, Inc., an integrated frac and industrial sand supply and services company, engages in the excavation, processing, and sale of sands or proppant for use in hydraulic fracturing operations in the oil and gas industry in the United States. It also provides proppant logistics services; and wellsite storage solutions through SmartSystems products and services. The company sells its products primarily to oil and natural gas exploration and production companies, oilfield service companies, and industrial manufacturers. Smart Sand, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Spring, Texas.

About Energy Fuels

Energy Fuels Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the extraction, recovery, recycling, exploration, permitting, evaluation, and sale of uranium mineral properties in the United States. The company produces and sells vanadium pentoxide, rare earth elements, and heavy mineral sands, such as ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and monazite. The company was formerly known as Volcanic Metals Exploration Inc. and changed its name to Energy Fuels Inc. in May 2006. Energy Fuels Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado.