Head-To-Head Comparison: Standard Lithium (SLI) versus The Competition

Standard Lithium (NYSE:SLI) is one of 33 publicly-traded companies in the “Chemicals & allied products” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Standard Lithium to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

Standard Lithium has a beta of 1.89, meaning that its share price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Standard Lithium’s competitors have a beta of 1.83, meaning that their average share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

16.8% of Standard Lithium shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.1% of shares of all “Chemicals & allied products” companies are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Standard Lithium shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of shares of all “Chemicals & allied products” companies are held by 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.

Dividends

Standard Lithium pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 102.0%. Standard Lithium pays out -869.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Chemicals & allied products” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.8% and pay out 41.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Standard Lithium is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Standard Lithium and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Standard Lithium	N/A	$108.82 million	-8.52
Standard Lithium Competitors	$6.87 billion	$214.06 million	66.02

Standard Lithium’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Standard Lithium. Standard Lithium is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Standard Lithium and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Standard Lithium	N/A	-15.67%	-14.05%
Standard Lithium Competitors	-568.74%	5.73%	-0.15%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Standard Lithium and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Standard Lithium	0	0	1	0	3.00
Standard Lithium Competitors	139	1282	1594	46	2.51

Standard Lithium presently has a consensus target price of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 78.57%. As a group, “Chemicals & allied products” companies have a potential upside of 6.54%. Given Standard Lithium’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Standard Lithium is more favorable than its competitors.

Summary

Standard Lithium competitors beat Standard Lithium on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Standard Lithium

Standard Lithium Ltd. explores for, develops, and processes lithium brine properties in the United States. Its flagship project is the Lanxess project with area of approximately 150,000 acres located in southern Arkansas. The company was formerly known as Patriot Petroleum Corp. and changed its name to Standard Lithium Ltd. in December 2016. Standard Lithium Ltd. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.