Head-To-Head Contrast: Vista Gold (NYSE:VGZ) and Gold Royalty (NYSE:GROY)

Gold Royalty (NYSE:GROY) and Vista Gold (NYSE:VGZ) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Gold Royalty and Vista Gold, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gold Royalty	0	1	7	0	2.88
Vista Gold	0	0	1	0	3.00

Gold Royalty currently has a consensus target price of $4.86, indicating a potential upside of 20.23%. Vista Gold has a consensus target price of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 51.52%. Given Vista Gold’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Vista Gold is more favorable than Gold Royalty.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Gold Royalty and Vista Gold”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gold Royalty	$14.46 million	47.61	-$26.76 million	($0.04)	-101.00
Vista Gold	N/A	N/A	-$6.59 million	($0.07)	-28.29

Vista Gold has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Gold Royalty. Gold Royalty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vista Gold, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Gold Royalty and Vista Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gold Royalty	-252.16%	0.46%	0.35%
Vista Gold	N/A	93.43%	68.97%

Volatility and Risk

Gold Royalty has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vista Gold has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

33.8% of Gold Royalty shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of Vista Gold shares are held by institutional investors. 4.4% of Vista Gold 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.

Summary

Vista Gold beats Gold Royalty on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gold Royalty

Gold Royalty Corp., a precious metals-focused royalty company, provides financing solutions to the metals and mining industry. It focuses on acquiring royalties, streams, and similar interests at varying stages of the mine life cycle to build a portfolio offering near, medium, and longer-term returns for its investors. Gold Royalty Corp. was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Vista Gold

Vista Gold Corp., together with its subsidiaries, acquires, explores, evaluates, and advances gold exploration and development projects in Australia. Its flagship asset is the 100% owned Mt Todd gold project located in Northern Territory, Australia. The company was incorporated in 1983 and is based in Englewood, Colorado.