Comparing UBE (OTCMKTS:UBEOF) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB)

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and UBE (OTCMKTS:UBEOF) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Albemarle	-6.72%	6.38%	3.31%
UBE	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Albemarle pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. UBE pays an annual dividend of $3.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 22.8%. Albemarle pays out -34.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UBE pays out 70.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Albemarle has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.9% of Albemarle shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.0% of UBE shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Albemarle shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Albemarle and UBE”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle	$9.62 billion	1.20	$1.57 billion	($4.73)	-20.77
UBE	N/A	N/A	N/A	$5.67	3.08

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Albemarle and UBE, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Albemarle	1	15	7	0	2.26
UBE	0	0	0	0	N/A

Albemarle currently has a consensus target price of $117.30, indicating a potential upside of 19.40%. Given Albemarle’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Albemarle is more favorable than UBE.

Summary

Albemarle beats UBE on 9 of the 12 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 UBE

UBE Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the chemicals, construction materials, and machinery businesses in Japan, North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Thailand, India, Latin America, and internationally. It offers synthetic rubber, engineering plastics, caprolactam, industrial chemicals, liquefied gas, polyethylene, ammonium sulfate, polyimide, battery materials, separation membranes, fine chemicals, ceramics, high purity chemicals, semiconductor gas products, and products for polyurethane resins. The company also provides contract manufacturing services for APIs and intermediates; aromatic SF5 compounds; FLUOLEAD, a novel nucleophilic fluorinating agent; and drug discovery and pipeline services. In addition, it offers cement products, ready mixed concrete, soil stabilizing cement, building materials, limestone, calcia and magnesia, specialty inorganic materials, and resource recycling, as well as sells coal. Further, the company is involved in the supply of electric power. Additionally, it provides die-casting and injection molding machines, and extrusion presses; and UBE vertical mills, kilins, furnaces, dryers, water screening equipment, storage and transportation systems, bridges and steel structures, and steel billets and casting. The company also manufactures and sells nylon, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, plastic films, polypropylene molded products, fibers, fiber-reinforced plastics, and cast iron and steel products. The company was formerly known as Ube Industries, Ltd. UBE Corporation was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.