Financial Review: Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Shanghai Electric Group (OTCMKTS:SIELY)

Shanghai Electric Group (OTCMKTS:SIELY) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Shanghai Electric Group pays an annual dividend of $0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Albemarle pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Albemarle pays out 607.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Albemarle has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Albemarle is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Shanghai Electric Group and Albemarle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shanghai Electric Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Albemarle	3.09%	10.96%	5.39%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Shanghai Electric Group and Albemarle”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shanghai Electric Group	$18.29 billion	0.36	$174.10 million	N/A	N/A
Albemarle	$5.91 billion	2.63	-$510.63 million	$0.27	487.11

Shanghai Electric Group has higher revenue and earnings than Albemarle.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

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

Volatility & Risk

Shanghai Electric Group has a beta of -0.03, indicating that its stock price is 103% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Albemarle has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Shanghai Electric Group and Albemarle, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shanghai Electric Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Albemarle	1	10	15	0	2.54

Albemarle has a consensus target price of $192.30, indicating a potential upside of 46.22%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Shanghai Electric Group.

Summary

Albemarle beats Shanghai Electric Group on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shanghai Electric Group

Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. provides industrial grade green intelligent system solutions in Mainland China and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Energy Equipment, Industrial Equipment, and Integration Services. The Energy Equipment segment designs, manufactures, and sells nuclear power, energy storage, wind power, coal-fired power generation and corollary, and gas-fired power generation equipment; and vessels for chemical industry, as well as provides power grid and industrial intelligent power supply system solutions. The Industrial Equipment segment provides elevators, electric motors, and industrial basic parts; and intelligent manufacturing and construction industrialization equipment. The Integration Services segment offers energy, environmental protection, and automation engineering services; industrial internet; financing leasing, factoring, asset management, insurance brokerage, etc. services; and international trade and property management services. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric Holding Group Co., Ltd.

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.