Comparing Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) & Tosoh (OTCMKTS:TOSCF)

Tosoh (OTCMKTS:TOSCF) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Tosoh and Albemarle, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tosoh	0	0	0	0	0.00
Albemarle	4	10	3	0	1.94

Albemarle has a consensus price target of $86.47, suggesting a potential upside of 17.81%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Tosoh.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tosoh	4.54%	5.29%	3.55%
Albemarle	-18.61%	-1.87%	-0.89%

Volatility & Risk

Tosoh has a beta of 0.15, indicating that its share price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Albemarle has a beta of 1.65, indicating that its share price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tosoh	$6.98 billion	0.72	$382.82 million	$1.01	15.67
Albemarle	$5.38 billion	1.61	-$1.18 billion	($9.32)	-7.88

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.9% of Albemarle shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Albemarle shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

About Tosoh

Tosoh Corporation manufactures and sells basic chemicals, petrochemicals, specialty products, and fine chemicals worldwide. It operates through four segments: Petrochemical, Chlor-Alkali, Specialty, and Engineering. The company provides advance materials, including battery, fabricated quartzware, silica glass, thin film depositions, zeolites for catalysts and molecular sieves, zirconia injection mold components and compounds, zirconia grinding and dispersion media, and zirconia fine beads and powders. It also offers chromatographic columns, and media and diagnostic systems; clinical diagnostic systems; Portland cement and blast-furnace slag cement; and caustic soda, vinyl chloride monomer, calcium hypochlorite, and sodium bicarbonate. In addition, the company provides ethylene, propylene, C4 fraction, tertiary butyl alcohol, cumene, and aromatic compounds; and ethyleneamines, bromine, hydrobromic acids, flame retardants, non-aqueous solvents, chelating agents, ethylene dichloride, and sodium styrenesulfonate. Further, it offers polymers, such as ethylene vinyl-acetate copolymers, adhesive polymers, low and high-density polyethylene products, synthetic rubbers, functional polymers, and polyvinyl chloride pastes; and polyurethanes (PU), including methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, toluene diisocyanate, hexamethylene diisocyanate, adhesives, coating resins, elastomers, polyisocyanates for PU paints, and polyols. The company manufactures and sells water treatment systems; and engages in the construction and repair businesses. It serves chemical and petrochemical, construction, automotive, consumer electronics, information technology, bioscience, and environmental markets. The company was incorporated in 1935 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

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.