Contrasting Westaim (OTCMKTS:WEDXF) and Ashland (NYSE:ASH)

Westaim (OTCMKTS:WEDXF) and Ashland (NYSE:ASH) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Westaim and Ashland, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Westaim	0	0	0	0	0.00
Ashland	2	3	6	0	2.36

Ashland has a consensus price target of $62.67, suggesting a potential downside of 6.09%. Given Ashland’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ashland is more favorable than Westaim.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.0% of Ashland shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of Westaim shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Ashland shares are held by company 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.

Volatility & Risk

Westaim has a beta of 0.21, meaning that its share price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashland has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Westaim and Ashland’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Westaim	-108.56%	-9.68%	-7.67%
Ashland	-39.03%	8.06%	3.33%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Westaim and Ashland”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Westaim	$53.37 million	9.84	-$38.00 million	($1.92)	-8.22
Ashland	$1.82 billion	1.68	-$845.00 million	($15.42)	-4.33

Westaim has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Ashland. Westaim is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashland, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ashland beats Westaim on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Westaim

The Westaim Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in direct and indirect investments through acquisitions, joint ventures, secondary investments both direct and indirect, fund of fund investments, and other arrangements. For direct investments, the firm invests in early venture, mid venture, late venture, middle market, later stage, mature, emerging growth, PIPEs, and buyout transactions. For fund of fund investments, it seeks to invest in private equity funds, venture capital funds, and hedge funds. The firm seeks to provide long term capital to businesses operating in the global financial services industry. It typically acquires controlling interests in businesses. The firm seeks to acquire debt, equity, or derivative securities of both public and private companies. It invests with the objective of providing its shareholders with capital appreciation and real wealth preservation. The firm seeks to provide its portfolio companies with advisory services including, but not limited to, advice on capital allocation, financing strategy, performance measurement and merger and acquisition support. It also seeks to partner with like-minded providers of third party capital to help supplement the firm's own capital, when completing acquisitions. The firm generally seeks to hold its investments for seven to 15 years. The Westaim Corporation was founded in 1996 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

About Ashland

Ashland Inc. provides additives and specialty ingredients in the North and Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through Life Sciences, Personal Care, Specialty Additives, and Intermediates segments. The Life Sciences segment offers pharmaceutical solutions, including controlled release polymers, disintegrants, tablet coatings, thickeners, solubilizers, and tablet binders; nutrition solutions, such as thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and additives; and nutraceutical solutions comprising products for weight management, joint comfort, stomach and intestinal health, sports nutrition, and general wellness, as well as custom formulation, toll processing, and particle engineering solutions. Its Personal Care segment provides a range of nature-based, biodegradable, and performance ingredients; solutions for toothpastes, mouth washes and rinses, denture cleaning, and care for teeth; and household supplies nature-derived rheology ingredients, biodegradable surface wetting agents, performance encapsulates, and specialty polymers. The Specialty Additives segment offers rheology modifiers, foam control agents, surfactants and wetting agents, pH neutralizers, advanced ceramics used in catalytic converters, environmental filters, ingredients for the manufacturing of ceramic capacitors, plasma display panels and solar cells, ingredients for textile printing, thermoplastic metals, and alloys for welding. Its Intermediates segment produces 1,4 butanediol and related derivatives, including n-methylpyrrolidone. It offers its products to customers in a range of consumer and industrial markets, such as architectural coatings, construction, energy, food and beverage, nutraceuticals, personal care, and pharmaceutical. The company was formerly known as Ashland Global Holdings Inc. and changed its name to Ashland Inc. in August 2022. Ashland Inc. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.