Critical Review: Lsb Industries (NYSE:LXU) & DuPont de Nemours (NYSE:DD)

Lsb Industries (NYSE:LXU) and DuPont de Nemours (NYSE:DD) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Lsb Industries and DuPont de Nemours, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lsb Industries	1	1	2	0	2.25
DuPont de Nemours	1	4	9	0	2.57

Lsb Industries presently has a consensus target price of $9.75, suggesting a potential upside of 4.33%. DuPont de Nemours has a consensus target price of $89.42, suggesting a potential upside of 9.79%. Given DuPont de Nemours’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe DuPont de Nemours is more favorable than Lsb Industries.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

73.7% of Lsb Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.0% of DuPont de Nemours shares are held by institutional investors. 4.7% of Lsb Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of DuPont de Nemours shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Lsb Industries has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, DuPont de Nemours has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lsb Industries and DuPont de Nemours’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lsb Industries	-6.15%	-0.34%	-0.14%
DuPont de Nemours	-1.54%	7.85%	5.10%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lsb Industries and DuPont de Nemours”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lsb Industries	$522.40 million	1.29	-$19.35 million	($0.46)	-20.32
DuPont de Nemours	$12.39 billion	2.75	$703.00 million	($0.47)	-173.29

DuPont de Nemours has higher revenue and earnings than Lsb Industries. DuPont de Nemours is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lsb Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

DuPont de Nemours beats Lsb Industries on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lsb Industries

LSB Industries, Inc. engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of chemical products. The company provides nitrogen-based fertilizers, such as ammonia, fertilizer grade high density ammonium nitrate (HDAN), and urea ammonia nitrate for fertilizer for corn, pastures, and other crops, as well as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) fertilizer blends application. It also offers high purity and commercial grade ammonia, high purity ammonium nitrate, sulfuric acids, mixed nitrating acids, carbon dioxide, and diesel exhaust fluids, as well as concentrated, and blended and regular nitric acids for various applications, including semiconductor, nylon, and polyurethane intermediates, ammonium nitrate, and metal processing; chemical feedstocks, emissions abatement, water treatments, and refrigerants; pulp and paper, aluminum, water treatment, metals, and vanadium processing; abatement for diesel vehicles; and food refrigeration, dry ice, and enhanced oil recovery. In addition, the company provides industrial grade and low density ammonium nitrate, and ammonium nitrate for explosives mining, quarries, and other blasting activities. It sells its products through distributors, as well as directly to end customers in the United States and other parts of North America. The company serves to the agricultural, industrial, and mining markets. LSB Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

About DuPont de Nemours

DuPont de Nemours, Inc. provides technology-based materials and solutions in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through Electronics & Industrial, Water & Protection, and Corporate & Other segments. The Electronics & Industrial segment supplies materials and solutions for the fabrication of semiconductors and integrated circuits. This segment also provides semiconductor and advanced packaging materials; dielectric and metallization solutions for chip packaging; and silicones for light emitting diode packaging and semiconductor applications; permanent and process chemistries for the fabrication of printed circuit boards to include laminates and substrates, and electroless and electrolytic metallization solutions, and electromagnetic shielding and thermal management solutions, as well as patterning solutions, and materials and metallization processes for metal finishing, decorative, and industrial applications. In addition, it offers various materials to manufacture rigid and flexible displays for organic light emitting diode, and other display applications; provides high performance parts, and specialty silicone elastomers, and lubricants to automotive, aerospace, electronics, industrial, and healthcare markets; and photopolymer plates and platemaking systems used in flexographic printing, and digital inks for textile, commercial, and home-office printing applications. The Water & Protection segment provides engineered products and integrated systems for worker safety, water purification and separation, transportation, energy, medical packaging and building materials. The Corporate & Other segment offers auto adhesives and fluids; Multibase; and Tedlar products. The company was formerly known as DowDuPont Inc. and changed its name to DuPont de Nemours, Inc. in June 2019. DuPont de Nemours, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.