Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRM) & Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBSW) Financial Analysis

Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRM) and Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBSW) 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, dividends, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Silver Standard Resources has a beta of -0.14, suggesting that its share price is 114% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sibanye Gold has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Silver Standard Resources and Sibanye Gold, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Silver Standard Resources	1	4	3	2	2.60
Sibanye Gold	1	1	2	1	2.60

Silver Standard Resources currently has a consensus target price of $24.38, indicating a potential downside of 24.16%. Sibanye Gold has a consensus target price of $19.93, indicating a potential upside of 17.25%. Given Sibanye Gold’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sibanye Gold is more favorable than Silver Standard Resources.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Silver Standard Resources and Sibanye Gold”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Silver Standard Resources	$1.63 billion	4.00	$395.75 million	$1.85	17.37
Sibanye Gold	$7.25 billion	1.66	-$288.00 million	N/A	N/A

Silver Standard Resources has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sibanye Gold.

Profitability

This table compares Silver Standard Resources and Sibanye Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Silver Standard Resources	24.28%	10.40%	7.35%
Sibanye Gold	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

68.3% of Silver Standard Resources shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 34.9% of Sibanye Gold shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Silver Standard Resources shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Sibanye Gold shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Silver Standard Resources beats Sibanye Gold on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Silver Standard Resources

SSR Mining Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation, acquisition, exploration, and development of precious metal resource properties in the United States, Türkiye, Canada, and Argentina. The company explores for gold doré, copper, silver, lead, and zinc deposits. Its mines include the Çöpler, located in Erzincan province, Turkey; the Marigold, located in Nevada, the United States; the Seabee, located in Saskatchewan, Canada; and the Puna, located in Jujuy province, Argentina. The company was formerly known as Silver Standard Resources Inc. and changed its name to SSR Mining Inc. in August 2017. SSR Mining Inc. was incorporated in 1946 and is based in Denver, Colorado.

About Sibanye Gold

Sibanye Stillwater Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a precious metals mining company in South Africa, the United States, Europe, and Australia. The company produces gold; platinum group metals (PGMs), including palladium, platinum, rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium; chrome; nickel; and silver, cobalt, and copper. It owns the East Boulder and Stillwater mines located in Montana, the United States; and Columbus metallurgical complex, which smelts the material mined to produce PGM-rich filter cake, as well as conducts PGM recycling activities. The company also involved in the Kroondal, Rustenburg, Marikana, and Platinum Mile operations situated in South Africa; Mimosa located on the southern portion in Zimbabwe; the Driefontein, Kloof, Rand Refinery, and Cooke surface operations located on the West Rand of the Witwatersrand Basin; and the Beatrix situated in the southern Free State. In addition, it owns an interest in surface tailings retreatment facilities; the Marathon PGM project in Ontario, Canada; the Altar and Rio Grande copper gold projects in the Andes in north-west Argentina; the Hoedspruit; and the Burnstone and southern Free State gold projects in South Africa. Sibanye Stillwater Limited was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Weltevreden Park, South Africa.