Contrasting Aqua Metals (NASDAQ:AQMS) and Xylem (NYSE:XYL)

Aqua Metals (NASDAQ:AQMS) and Xylem (NYSE:XYL) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

22.0% of Aqua Metals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.0% of Xylem shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.3% of Aqua Metals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Xylem shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Aqua Metals has a beta of 0.29, suggesting that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Xylem has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Aqua Metals and Xylem, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aqua Metals	0	0	1	0	3.00
Xylem	0	4	6	0	2.60

Aqua Metals presently has a consensus price target of $30.00, suggesting a potential upside of 731.02%. Xylem has a consensus price target of $152.29, suggesting a potential upside of 5.76%. Given Aqua Metals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Aqua Metals is more favorable than Xylem.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Aqua Metals and Xylem”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aqua Metals	$30,000.00	169.67	-$24.55 million	($35.94)	-0.10
Xylem	$8.56 billion	4.09	$890.00 million	$3.85	37.40

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

Profitability

This table compares Aqua Metals and Xylem’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aqua Metals	N/A	-214.23%	-135.05%
Xylem	10.74%	10.33%	6.72%

Summary

Xylem beats Aqua Metals on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aqua Metals

Aqua Metals, Inc. engages in reinventing metals recycling activities with its patented AquaRefining technology. The company's technology produces metals and alloys that can be returned into the battery manufacturing supply chain markets, as well as sells metals for use in various advanced manufacturing industries. Its AquaRefining, a low-emissions and recycling technology that replaces polluting furnaces and hazardous chemicals with electricity-powered electroplating to recover valuable metals and materials from spent batteries. Aqua Metals, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.

About Xylem

Xylem Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and servicing of engineered products and solutions worldwide. It operates through four segments: Water Infrastructure, Applied Water, Measurement & Control Solutions, and Integrated Solutions and Services. The Water Infrastructure segment offers products, including water, storm water, and wastewater pumps; controls and systems; filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment equipment; and mobile dewatering equipment and rental services under the ADI, Flygt, Godwin, Sanitaire, Magneto, Neptune Benson, Ionpure, Leopold, Wedeco, and Xylem Vue brands. The Applied Water segment provides pumps, valves, heat exchangers, controls, and dispensing equipment systems under the Goulds Water Technology, Bell & Gossett, A-C Fire Pump, Standard Xchange, Lowara, Jabsco, Xylem Vue, and Flojet brands. The Measurement & Control Solutions segment offers smart meters, networked communication devices, data analytics, test equipment, controls, sensor devices, software and managed services, and critical infrastructure services; and software and services, including cloud-based analytics, remote monitoring and data management, leak detection, condition assessment, asset management, and pressure monitoring solutions, as well as testing equipment. This segment sells its products under the Pure Technologies, Sensus, Smith Blair, WTW, Xylem Vue, and YSI brands. The Integrated Solutions and Services segment provides maintenance services, mobile services, digital outsourced solutions, wastewater systems, environmental remediation, odor and corrosion control, filtration, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, and deionization under Aquapro, WaterOne, and Ion Pure brands. Xylem Inc. was formerly known as ITT WCO, Inc. and changed its name to Xylem Inc. in May 2011. Xylem Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia.