Financial Analysis: Standard Lithium (SLI) and The Competition

Standard Lithium (NYSE:SLI) is one of 34 publicly-traded companies in the “Chemicals & allied products” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Standard Lithium to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Standard Lithium and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Standard Lithium	N/A	-$31.35 million	-7.09
Standard Lithium Competitors	$6.63 billion	$206.77 million	66.08

Standard Lithium’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Standard Lithium. Standard Lithium is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Standard Lithium and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Standard Lithium	0	0	1	0	3.00
Standard Lithium Competitors	139	1276	1591	46	2.51

Standard Lithium presently has a consensus price target of $3.50, indicating a potential upside of 114.72%. As a group, “Chemicals & allied products” companies have a potential upside of 6.07%. Given Standard Lithium’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Standard Lithium is more favorable than its rivals.

Dividends

Standard Lithium pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 122.7%. Standard Lithium pays out -869.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Chemicals & allied products” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.8% and pay out 42.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Standard Lithium is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Standard Lithium has a beta of 1.89, meaning that its stock price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Standard Lithium’s rivals have a beta of 1.78, meaning that their average stock price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Standard Lithium and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Standard Lithium	N/A	-15.67%	-14.05%
Standard Lithium Competitors	-568.74%	5.73%	-0.15%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

16.8% of Standard Lithium shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.4% of shares of all “Chemicals & allied products” companies are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Standard Lithium shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.1% of shares of all “Chemicals & allied products” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Standard Lithium rivals beat Standard Lithium on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Standard Lithium

Standard Lithium Ltd. explores for, develops, and processes lithium brine properties in the United States. Its flagship project is the Lanxess project with area of approximately 150,000 acres located in southern Arkansas. The company was formerly known as Patriot Petroleum Corp. and changed its name to Standard Lithium Ltd. in December 2016. Standard Lithium Ltd. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.