Head to Head Comparison: Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX) and Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX) and Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings, risk and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Minerals Technologies has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hawkins has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Minerals Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Hawkins pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Minerals Technologies pays out 733.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Hawkins pays out 18.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Minerals Technologies has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Hawkins has increased its dividend for 20 consecutive years.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Minerals Technologies and Hawkins”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Minerals Technologies	$2.12 billion	0.87	$167.10 million	$0.06	983.00
Hawkins	$974.43 million	3.73	$84.35 million	$4.06	42.84

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.3% of Minerals Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.7% of Hawkins shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Minerals Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Hawkins shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Minerals Technologies and Hawkins’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Minerals Technologies	0.10%	10.64%	5.34%
Hawkins	8.37%	18.35%	10.73%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Minerals Technologies and Hawkins, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Minerals Technologies	1	0	1	0	2.00
Hawkins	0	2	3	0	2.60

Minerals Technologies presently has a consensus price target of $84.00, suggesting a potential upside of 42.42%. Hawkins has a consensus price target of $162.50, suggesting a potential downside of 6.57%. Given Minerals Technologies’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Minerals Technologies is more favorable than Hawkins.

Summary

Hawkins beats Minerals Technologies on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Minerals Technologies

Minerals Technologies Inc. develops, produces, and markets various mineral, mineral-based, and related systems and services. The company operates through two segments, Consumer & Specialties, and Engineered Solutions segments. The Consumer & Specialties segment offers household and personal care products, such as pet litter, personal care, fabric care, edible oil and other fluid purification, animal health, and agricultural products; and specialty additives products, including precipitated calcium carbonate and ground calcium carbonate products that are used in the paper, paperboard, and fiber based packaging industries, as well as automotive, construction, and table and food applications. This segment produces limestone and dolomitic limestone used in construction, automotive, and consumer markets for packaging applications. The Engineered Solutions segment provides high-temperature technology products consisting of custom-blended mineral and non-mineral products for casting auto parts, farm and construction equipment, oil and gas production equipment, power generation turbine castings, and rail car components; and environmental and infrastructure products comprising geosynthetic clay lining systems, vapor intrusion mitigation products, sub surface waterproofing systems, green roofs, wastewater remediation, drinking water purification technologies, and drilling products. In addition, this segment provides chromite products; gunnable monolithic refractory products and application systems; monolithic refractory materials and pre-cast refractory shapes; refractory shapes and linings; carbon composite and pyrolitic graphite; and filtration and well testing services. It markets its products primarily through its direct sales force, as well as regional distributors. The company serves in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Minerals Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Hawkins

Hawkins, Inc. operates as a specialty chemical and ingredients company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Industrial, Water Treatment, and Health and Nutrition. The Industrial segment offers industrial chemicals, products, and services to agriculture, chemical processing, electronics, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and plating industries. This segment manufactures sodium hypochlorite and agricultural products, as well as various food-grade and pharmaceutical products, such as liquid phosphates, lactates, other blended products, and agricultural products; and receives, stores, and distributes various chemicals comprising liquid caustic soda, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, urea, phosphoric acid, aqua ammonia, and potassium hydroxide. It also repackages water treatment chemicals and bulk industrial chemicals; and performs custom blending of chemicals. The Water Treatment segment provides chemicals, products, equipment, services, and solutions for potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater, industrial process water, non-residential swimming pool water, and agriculture water. The Health and Nutrition segment offers ingredient distribution, processing, and formulation solutions to manufacturers of nutraceutical, functional food and beverage, personal care, dietary supplement and other nutritional food, and health and wellness products. Its products portfolio includes minerals, vitamins and amino acids, excipients, joint products, botanicals and herbs, sweeteners, and enzymes. Hawkins, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota.