Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) vs. Nissan Chemical (OTCMKTS:NNCHY) Financial Contrast

Nissan Chemical (OTCMKTS:NNCHY) and Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

69.7% of Hawkins shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Hawkins shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Nissan Chemical has a beta of -0.13, meaning that its stock price is 113% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hawkins has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Nissan Chemical pays an annual dividend of $0.57 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Hawkins pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Nissan Chemical pays out 24.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hawkins pays out 19.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Hawkins has increased its dividend for 20 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Nissan Chemical and Hawkins, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nissan Chemical	0	1	0	0	2.00
Hawkins	0	3	1	0	2.25

Hawkins has a consensus target price of $200.00, indicating a potential upside of 31.99%. Given Hawkins’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Hawkins is more favorable than Nissan Chemical.

Profitability

This table compares Nissan Chemical and Hawkins’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nissan Chemical	17.07%	19.08%	13.77%
Hawkins	7.75%	16.85%	8.93%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nissan Chemical and Hawkins”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nissan Chemical	$1.65 billion	3.38	$284.08 million	$2.29	18.09
Hawkins	$974.43 million	3.25	$84.35 million	$3.95	38.36

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

Summary

Hawkins beats Nissan Chemical on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nissan Chemical

Nissan Chemical Corporation engages in the chemicals, performance materials, agricultural chemicals, and pharmaceuticals businesses in Japan and internationally. The company provides high purity chemicals; AdBlue, an urea solution; ammonia, sulfuric, and nitric acid, as well as concrete and civil engineering-related products; TEPIC, an epoxy compound; Melamine Cyanurate, a salt of melamine and iso cyanuric acid; TEPIC-VL, a liquid epoxy compound; TEPIC-FL, a liquid epoxy material; FOLDI-E101, an epoxy reactive diluent; Ecopromote, a nucleating agents for PLA; Nissan Reishi, a health food; phenylphosphonic acid; HI-LITE, a chlorinated isocyanulate; OPTBEADS, a melamine-formaldehyde resin and silica; and FINEOXOCOL, a saturated fatty alcohol and acid. It also offers performance materials comprising display, semiconductor, and inorganic materials; agricultural chemicals, such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc. for use on agricultural land, as well as in golf courses and parks; and drug substances for antiparasite drugs for animals. In addition, the company provides pharmaceutical products, such as LIVALO, a antihypercholesterolemic agent; LANDEL and FINTE, a long-acting calcium channel blocker; APIs and intermediaries; and manufacturing and process researching services for pharmaceutical ingredients. Further, it develops healthcare, information and communication materials, and environmental and energy materials. The company was formerly known as Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd. and changed its name to Nissan Chemical Corporation in July 2018. Nissan Chemical Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About Hawkins

Hawkins, Inc. operates as a specialty chemical and ingredients company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Industrial, Water Treatment, and Health and Nutrition. The Industrial segment offers industrial chemicals, products, and services to agriculture, chemical processing, electronics, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and plating industries. This segment manufactures sodium hypochlorite and agricultural products, as well as various food-grade and pharmaceutical products, such as liquid phosphates, lactates, other blended products, and agricultural products; and receives, stores, and distributes various chemicals comprising liquid caustic soda, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, urea, phosphoric acid, aqua ammonia, and potassium hydroxide. It also repackages water treatment chemicals and bulk industrial chemicals; and performs custom blending of chemicals. The Water Treatment segment provides chemicals, products, equipment, services, and solutions for potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater, industrial process water, non-residential swimming pool water, and agriculture water. The Health and Nutrition segment offers ingredient distribution, processing, and formulation solutions to manufacturers of nutraceutical, functional food and beverage, personal care, dietary supplement and other nutritional food, and health and wellness products. Its products portfolio includes minerals, vitamins and amino acids, excipients, joint products, botanicals and herbs, sweeteners, and enzymes. Hawkins, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota.