Head-To-Head Comparison: Trinseo (NYSE:TSE) & American Vanguard (NYSE:AVD)

American Vanguard (NYSE:AVD) and Trinseo (NYSE:TSE) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and dividends.

Risk & Volatility

American Vanguard has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Trinseo has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

79.0% of American Vanguard shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.7% of Trinseo shares are held by institutional investors. 7.6% of American Vanguard shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.5% of Trinseo 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.

Profitability

This table compares American Vanguard and Trinseo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Vanguard	-21.15%	-23.15%	-8.20%
Trinseo	-13.15%	N/A	-11.72%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for American Vanguard and Trinseo, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Vanguard	1	0	1	0	2.00
Trinseo	1	2	0	0	1.67

American Vanguard presently has a consensus target price of $12.00, suggesting a potential upside of 211.28%. Trinseo has a consensus target price of $1.00, suggesting a potential upside of 26.26%. Given American Vanguard’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe American Vanguard is more favorable than Trinseo.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares American Vanguard and Trinseo”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Vanguard	$547.31 million	0.20	-$126.34 million	($3.98)	-0.97
Trinseo	$3.51 billion	0.01	-$348.50 million	($11.55)	-0.07

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

Summary

American Vanguard beats Trinseo on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Vanguard

American Vanguard Corporation, through its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and markets specialty chemicals for agricultural, commercial, and consumer uses in the United States and internationally. It manufactures and formulates chemicals, including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, soil health, plant nutrition, molluscicides, growth regulators, soil fumigants, and biorationals in liquid, powder, and granular forms for crops, turf and ornamental plants, and human and animal health protection. The company also markets, sells, and distributes end-use chemical and biological products for crop applications; and distributes chemicals for turf and ornamental markets. It distributes its products through national distribution companies, and buying groups or co-operatives; and through sales offices, sales force executives, sales agents, and wholly owned distributors. American Vanguard Corporation was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.

About Trinseo

Trinseo PLC operates as a specialty material solutions provider in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Engineered Materials, Latex Binders, Plastics Solutions, Polystyrene, and Americas Styrenics. The Engineered Materials segment offers rigid thermoplastic compounds and blends, soft thermoplastic, continuous cast, cell cast, activated methyl methacrylates (MMA), PMMA resins, and extruded PMMA sheets and resins for consumer electronics, medical, footwear, automotive, and building and construction applications under the EMERGE, CALIBRE, PLEXIGLAS, ALTUGLAS, ACRYSPA, AVONITE, STUDIO, MEGOL, APILON, APIGO, and APINAT brands. The Latex Binders segment provides styrene-butadiene latex, and other latex polymers and binders primarily for coated paper and packaging board, carpet, and artificial turf backings, as well as the adhesive, building and construction, and technical textile paper market. The Plastics Solutions segment offers acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, styrene-acrylonitrile, polycarbonate, and compounds and blends for automotive and other applications under the MAGNUM brand. The Polystyrene segment provides general purpose polystyrenes and high impact polystyrene for use in appliances, food packaging and food service disposables, consumer electronics, and building and construction materials under the STYRON brand. The Americas Styrenics segment provides styrene and polystyrene for appliances, food packaging, food service disposables, consumer electronics, and building and construction materials applications. Trinseo PLC was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania.