Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Intrepid Potash (NYSE:IPI) Financial Review

Intrepid Potash (NYSE:IPI) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) are both materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

56.1% of Intrepid Potash shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of Albemarle shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of Intrepid Potash shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Albemarle shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Intrepid Potash and Albemarle, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Intrepid Potash	1	1	0	2	2.75
Albemarle	2	9	15	0	2.50

Intrepid Potash currently has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential downside of 14.97%. Albemarle has a consensus price target of $188.09, suggesting a potential upside of 71.60%. Given Albemarle’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Intrepid Potash.

Profitability

This table compares Intrepid Potash and Albemarle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Intrepid Potash	8.94%	4.74%	3.73%
Albemarle	3.09%	10.96%	5.39%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Intrepid Potash and Albemarle”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Intrepid Potash	$298.33 million	1.54	$11.19 million	$1.98	17.23
Albemarle	$5.14 billion	2.51	-$510.63 million	$0.27	405.95

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

Volatility and Risk

Intrepid Potash has a beta of 1.26, meaning that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Albemarle has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Albemarle beats Intrepid Potash on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Intrepid Potash

Intrepid Potash, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the extraction and production of the potash in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Potash, Trio, and Oilfield Solutions. The company offers muriate of potash for various markets, such as agricultural market as a fertilizer input; the industrial market as a component in drilling and fracturing fluids for oil and gas wells, as well as an input to other industrial processes; and the animal feed market as a nutrient supplement. It also provides Trio, a specialty fertilizer that delivers potassium, sulfate, and magnesium in a single particle; water for oil and gas services industry; salt for various markets, including animal feed, industrial applications, pool salt, and the treatment of roads and walkways for ice melting or to manage road conditions; magnesium chloride for use as a road treatment agent for deicing and dedusting; brines for use in oil and gas industry to support well workover and completion activities; and metal recovery salts. Intrepid Potash, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in Denver, Colorado.

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Specialties segment provides bromine-based specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals; lithium specialties, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride; develops and manufactures cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators. The Ketjen segment offers clean fuels technologies (CFT), which is composed of hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) together with isomerization and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives; and performance catalyst solutions (PCS), which is composed of organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.