Analyzing Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) and Odyssey Marine Exploration (NASDAQ:OMEX)

Odyssey Marine Exploration (NASDAQ:OMEX) and Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) are both materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Odyssey Marine Exploration and Wheaton Precious Metals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Odyssey Marine Exploration	-21,320.00%	N/A	-262.11%
Wheaton Precious Metals	64.66%	21.97%	19.83%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Odyssey Marine Exploration and Wheaton Precious Metals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Odyssey Marine Exploration	1	0	0	0	1.00
Wheaton Precious Metals	0	1	10	0	2.91

Wheaton Precious Metals has a consensus price target of $172.11, indicating a potential upside of 28.32%. Given Wheaton Precious Metals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Wheaton Precious Metals is more favorable than Odyssey Marine Exploration.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.0% of Odyssey Marine Exploration shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of Wheaton Precious Metals shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.2% of Odyssey Marine Exploration shares are owned 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.

Risk and Volatility

Odyssey Marine Exploration has a beta of 0.06, meaning that its stock price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wheaton Precious Metals has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Odyssey Marine Exploration and Wheaton Precious Metals”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Odyssey Marine Exploration	$350,000.00	107.34	-$43.08 million	($0.85)	-0.75
Wheaton Precious Metals	$2.31 billion	26.32	$1.47 billion	$4.51	29.74

Wheaton Precious Metals has higher revenue and earnings than Odyssey Marine Exploration. Odyssey Marine Exploration is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wheaton Precious Metals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Wheaton Precious Metals beats Odyssey Marine Exploration on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Odyssey Marine Exploration

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, discovers, validates, and develops seafloor mineral resources worldwide. The company provides specialized mineral exploration, project development, and marine services to clients. Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. primarily sells precious metals in North America, Europe, and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, palladium, and cobalt deposits. The company was formerly known as Silver Wheaton Corp. and changed its name to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. in May 2017. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.