Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) versus Metallus (NYSE:MTUS) Head-To-Head Comparison

Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) and Metallus (NYSE:MTUS) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Worthington Steel and Metallus, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Worthington Steel	0	0	1	0	3.00
Metallus	0	1	1	0	2.50

Worthington Steel presently has a consensus target price of $34.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.68%. Metallus has a consensus target price of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 50.13%. Given Metallus’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Metallus is more favorable than Worthington Steel.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Worthington Steel and Metallus”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Worthington Steel	$3.09 billion	0.52	$110.70 million	$2.18	14.48
Metallus	$1.08 billion	0.62	$1.30 million	($0.51)	-31.35

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

Profitability

This table compares Worthington Steel and Metallus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Worthington Steel	3.58%	9.43%	5.95%
Metallus	-2.12%	0.56%	0.35%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

45.4% of Worthington Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.6% of Metallus shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Worthington Steel shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Metallus shares are owned by 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.

Risk and Volatility

Worthington Steel has a beta of 1.87, meaning that its share price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Metallus has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Worthington Steel beats Metallus on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Worthington Steel

Worthington Steel, Inc. operates as a steel processor in North America. It offers carbon flat-rolled steel and tailor welded blanks, as well as electrical steel laminations; and aluminum tailor welded blanks. The company serves various end-markets, including automotive, heavy truck, agriculture, construction, and energy. Worthington Steel, Inc. was incorporated in 2023 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.

About Metallus

Metallus Inc. manufactures and sells alloy steel, and carbon and micro-alloy steel products in the United States and internationally. The company offers special bar quality (SBQ) bars, seamless mechanical tubes, precision steel components, and billets that are used in gears, hubs, axles, crankshafts and motor shafts, oil country drill pipes, bits and collars, bearing races and rolling elements, bushings, fuel injectors, wind energy shafts, anti-friction bearings, artillery and mortar bodies, and other applications. It also provides custom-make precision steel components. It offers its products and services to the automotive, energy, industrial equipment, mining, construction, rail, aerospace and defense, heavy truck, agriculture, and power generation sectors. The company was formerly known as TimkenSteel Corporation and changed its name to Metallus Inc. in February 2024. Metallus Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Canton, Ohio.