Materion (NYSE:MTRN) & Wealth Minerals (OTCMKTS:WMLLF) Financial Contrast

Wealth Minerals (OTCMKTS:WMLLF) and Materion (NYSE:MTRN) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Wealth Minerals and Materion, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wealth Minerals	0	0	0	0	0.00
Materion	0	2	1	0	2.33

Materion has a consensus price target of $170.00, indicating a potential upside of 24.75%. Given Materion’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Materion is more favorable than Wealth Minerals.

Volatility & Risk

Wealth Minerals has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Materion has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Wealth Minerals and Materion’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wealth Minerals	N/A	-1,111.33%	-952.56%
Materion	4.19%	12.36%	6.41%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.1% of Wealth Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Materion shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Materion shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Wealth Minerals and Materion”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wealth Minerals	N/A	N/A	-$38.30 million	($0.11)	-0.49
Materion	$1.79 billion	1.58	$74.82 million	$3.59	37.96

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

Summary

Materion beats Wealth Minerals on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wealth Minerals

Wealth Minerals Ltd., a junior mineral resource exploration company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada, Chile, Peru, and Mexico. The company primarily explores for lithium, as well as for precious metal and copper deposits. Its flagship property is the 100% owned Atacama project that comprises 144 exploration concessions covering an area of approximately 46,200 hectares located in the Atacama Salar in Region II of Antofagasta, northern Chile. Wealth Minerals Ltd. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Materion

Materion Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, produces advanced engineered materials used in semiconductor, industrial, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, consumer electronics, and telecom and data center in the United States, Asia, Europe, and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Performance Materials, Electronic Materials, Precision Optics, and Other. The company provides advanced engineered solutions comprising beryllium and non-beryllium containing alloy systems and custom engineered parts in strip, bulk, rod, plate, bar, tube, and other customized shapes; engineering and product development services; alloyed metals, beryllium products, and beryllium hydroxide; precision strip, rod, and wire products, as well as engineered strip metal products; and ToughMet alloys and SupremEX aluminum silicon carbide metal matrix composite formulation products. It operates the bertrandite ore mine and refinery located in Utah that provides feedstock hydroxide for its beryllium businesses and external sale. In addition, it produces advanced chemicals, microelectronics packaging, precious metal, non-precious metal, and specialty metal products, including vapor deposition targets, frame lid assemblies, clad and precious metal pre-forms, high temperature braze materials, and ultra-pure wire. Further, the company designs and produces precision thin film coatings, optical filters, and assemblies. The company sells its products directly from its facilities, as well as through company-owned service centers, outside distributors, agents, direct sales offices, and independent sales representatives. The company was formerly known as Brush Engineered Materials Inc. and changed its name to Materion Corporation in March 2011. Materion Corporation was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.