Financial Comparison: Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY) vs. Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY) and Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Basf has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastman Chemical has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Basf pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Eastman Chemical pays an annual dividend of $3.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Basf pays out 440.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Eastman Chemical pays out 82.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Eastman Chemical has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Eastman Chemical is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Basf and Eastman Chemical, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Basf	3	4	2	0	1.89
Eastman Chemical	0	8	7	0	2.47

Eastman Chemical has a consensus price target of $79.21, suggesting a potential upside of 5.03%. Given Eastman Chemical’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eastman Chemical is more favorable than Basf.

Profitability

This table compares Basf and Eastman Chemical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Basf	2.59%	4.37%	1.94%
Eastman Chemical	5.42%	10.57%	4.18%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.0% of Basf shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of Eastman Chemical shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of Eastman Chemical shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Basf and Eastman Chemical”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Basf	$67.48 billion	N/A	$1.83 billion	$0.10	144.10
Eastman Chemical	$8.75 billion	0.98	$474.00 million	$4.09	18.44

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

Summary

Eastman Chemical beats Basf on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Basf

BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems comprising isocyanates, polyamides, and inorganic basic products, as well as specialties for plastics and plastics processing industries. The Industrial Solutions segment develops and markets ingredients and additives for industrial applications, such as polymer dispersions, resins, additives, electronic materials, and antioxidants for automotive, plastics, paints and coatings, electronics, and energy and resource industries. The Surface Technologies segment provides automotive OEM and refinish coatings, surface treatment, catalysts, battery materials, and precious and base metal services for the automotive and chemical sectors. The Nutrition & Care segment offers ingredients for consumer goods in the areas of nutrition, home, personal care, and technical applications; and serves the food and feed producers, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, detergents, cleaners, and crop protection industries, as well as fast-moving consumer goods sector. The Agricultural Solutions segment provides seeds and seed treatment products; fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and biological crop protection products; and digital farming solutions. The company engages in engineering and other; rental and leasing; and commodity trading activities. BASF SE was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany.

About Eastman Chemical

Eastman Chemical Company operates as a specialty materials company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company's Additives & Functional Products segment offers amine derivative-based building blocks, intermediates for surfactants, metam-based soil fumigants, and organic acid-based solutions; specialty coalescent and solvents, paint additives, and specialty polymers; and heat transfer and aviation fluids. It serves transportation, personal care, wellness, food, feed, agriculture, building and construction, water treatment, energy, consumables, durables, and electronics markets. Its Advanced Materials segment provides copolyesters, cellulosic biopolymers, cellulose esters, polyvinyl butyral sheets, and window and protective films for value-added end uses in the transportation, durables, electronics, building and construction, medical and pharma, and consumables markets. The company's Chemical Intermediates segment offers olefin and acetyl derivatives, ethylene, and commodity solvents; and primary non-phthalate and phthalate plasticizers, and niche non-phthalate plasticizers for industrial chemicals and processing, building and construction, health and wellness, and food and feed. Its Fibers segment provides cellulose acetate tow, triacetin, cellulose acetate flake, acetic acid, and acetic anhydride for use in filtration media primarily cigarette filters; natural and solution dyed acetate yarns, and staple fiber for use in consumables, and health and wellness markets; and wet-laid nonwoven media, specialty and engineered papers, and cellulose acetate fibers for transportation, industrial, agriculture and mining, and aerospace markets. The company was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee.