Contrasting Lithium Americas (Argentina) (NYSE:LAAC) & Mountain Province Diamonds (OTCMKTS:MPVDF)

Mountain Province Diamonds (OTCMKTS:MPVDF) and Lithium Americas (Argentina) (NYSE:LAAC) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Mountain Province Diamonds has a beta of 2.08, indicating that its stock price is 108% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lithium Americas (Argentina) has a beta of 1.35, indicating that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Mountain Province Diamonds and Lithium Americas (Argentina), as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mountain Province Diamonds	0	0	0	0	N/A
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	0	4	4	1	2.67

Lithium Americas (Argentina) has a consensus price target of $8.21, suggesting a potential upside of 236.41%. Given Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lithium Americas (Argentina) is more favorable than Mountain Province Diamonds.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.5% of Mountain Province Diamonds shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.2% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of Mountain Province Diamonds shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.8% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Mountain Province Diamonds and Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mountain Province Diamonds	$243.43 million	0.11	-$32.35 million	($0.26)	-0.47
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	N/A	$1.29 billion	$7.99	0.31

Lithium Americas (Argentina) has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Mountain Province Diamonds. Mountain Province Diamonds is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lithium Americas (Argentina), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Mountain Province Diamonds and Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mountain Province Diamonds	-29.66%	-4.09%	-1.76%
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	-0.25%	-0.20%

Summary

Lithium Americas (Argentina) beats Mountain Province Diamonds on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mountain Province Diamonds

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. focuses on the mining and marketing of rough diamonds worldwide. The company holds a 49% interest in the Gahcho Kué mine comprising mining leases covering an area of 5,216 hectares; and 100% of the mineral rights of the Kennady North consisting of 22 federal leases and 97 claims covering an area of 113,000 hectares located in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The company was formerly known as Mountain Province Mining Inc. and changed its name to Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. in October 2000. Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About Lithium Americas (Argentina)

Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. operates as a resource company. The company explores for lithium deposits. The company owns interests in the Cauchari-Olaroz project located in Jujuy province of Argentina. It also has a pipeline of development and exploration stage projects, including the Pastos Grandes project and the Sal de la Puna project located in Salta Province in northwestern Argentina. Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.