Comparing McEwen Mining (NYSE:MUX) and Vox Royalty (NASDAQ:VOXR)

Vox Royalty (NASDAQ:VOXR) and McEwen Mining (NYSE:MUX) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Vox Royalty has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, McEwen Mining has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Vox Royalty and McEwen Mining, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vox Royalty	0	0	1	0	3.00
McEwen Mining	0	0	2	0	3.00

Vox Royalty presently has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.33%. McEwen Mining has a consensus price target of $13.50, suggesting a potential upside of 38.46%. Given McEwen Mining’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe McEwen Mining is more favorable than Vox Royalty.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

46.0% of Vox Royalty shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.0% of McEwen Mining shares are held by institutional investors. 17.1% of McEwen Mining shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Vox Royalty pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. McEwen Mining pays an annual dividend of $0.01 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Vox Royalty pays out 400.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. McEwen Mining pays out 0.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Vox Royalty and McEwen Mining”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vox Royalty	$12.23 million	12.28	-$100,000.00	$0.01	299.00
McEwen Mining	$185.79 million	2.68	$55.30 million	$1.64	5.95

McEwen Mining has higher revenue and earnings than Vox Royalty. McEwen Mining is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vox Royalty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Vox Royalty and McEwen Mining’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vox Royalty	0.44%	2.06%	1.75%
McEwen Mining	46.32%	18.08%	13.69%

Summary

McEwen Mining beats Vox Royalty on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vox Royalty

Vox Royalty Corp. operates as a mining royalty and streaming company. The company holds a portfolio of 60 royalties and streaming assets. It operates in Australia, Canada, Peru, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, and the United States. Vox Royalty Corp. was founded in 2014 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

About McEwen Mining

McEwen Mining Inc. engages in the exploration, development, production, and sale of gold and silver. It also explores for copper deposits. The company owns 100% interests in the El Gallo and Fenix projects located in Mexico; and the Black Fox Mine and Stock Mill, Grey Fox, and Froome and Tamarack properties in Canada. It also owns interests in the Fuller, Davidson-Tisdale, Buffalo Ankerite, and Paymaster exploration properties located in Canada; and a 49% interest in the San José mine located in Argentina. In addition, the company owns 100% interests in the Gold Bar and Tonkin properties located in Eureka County, Nevada; and interests in the Los Azules copper project located in the cordilleran region in the province of San Juan, Argentina. The company was formerly known as US Gold Corporation and changed its name to McEwen Mining Inc. in January 2012. McEwen Mining Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.