Comparing 5E Advanced Materials (NASDAQ:FEAM) & Linde (NASDAQ:LIN)

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) and 5E Advanced Materials (NASDAQ:FEAM) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Linde and 5E Advanced Materials, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Linde	0	2	5	2	3.00
5E Advanced Materials	1	1	2	0	2.25

Linde currently has a consensus target price of $521.60, suggesting a potential upside of 24.58%. 5E Advanced Materials has a consensus target price of $8.25, suggesting a potential upside of 73.68%. Given 5E Advanced Materials’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe 5E Advanced Materials is more favorable than Linde.

Profitability

This table compares Linde and 5E Advanced Materials’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Linde	20.20%	19.09%	9.19%
5E Advanced Materials	N/A	-158.79%	-64.17%

Volatility & Risk

Linde has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, 5E Advanced Materials has a beta of 1.6, indicating that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Linde and 5E Advanced Materials”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Linde	$33.25 billion	5.91	$6.57 billion	$14.93	28.04
5E Advanced Materials	N/A	N/A	-$31.56 million	($15.95)	-0.30

Linde has higher revenue and earnings than 5E Advanced Materials. 5E Advanced Materials is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Linde, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.8% of Linde shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Linde shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of 5E Advanced Materials shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Linde beats 5E Advanced Materials on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Linde

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene. The company also designs and constructs turnkey process plants for third-party customers, as well as for the gas businesses in various locations, such as air separation, hydrogen, synthesis, olefin, and natural gas plants. It serves a range of industries, including healthcare, chemicals and energy, manufacturing, metals and mining, food and beverage, and electronics. The company was founded in 1879 and is based in Woking, the United Kingdom.

About 5E Advanced Materials

5E Advanced Materials, Inc. engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties in Australia and the United States. The company primarily explores for borates and lithium deposits. It holds 100% interest in the Fort Cady project located in the Mojave Desert region in eastern San Bernardino County, California. The company was formerly known as American Pacific Borates Limited. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is based in Hesperia, California.