Reviewing Crown (NYSE:CCK) and Cascades (OTCMKTS:CADNF)

Crown (NYSE:CCK) and Cascades (OTCMKTS:CADNF) are both materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.9% of Crown shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.8% of Cascades shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Crown shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Crown and Cascades, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crown	0	6	11	0	2.65
Cascades	0	1	4	0	2.80

Crown presently has a consensus target price of $128.20, suggesting a potential upside of 8.22%. Given Crown’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Crown is more favorable than Cascades.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Crown and Cascades”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crown	$12.37 billion	1.04	$738.00 million	$6.95	17.04
Cascades	N/A	N/A	N/A	($1.00)	-12.54

Crown has higher revenue and earnings than Cascades. Cascades is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crown, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Crown and Cascades’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crown	5.91%	27.33%	6.52%
Cascades	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Crown pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Cascades pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Crown pays out 20.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cascades pays out -16.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Crown has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Cascades is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Crown beats Cascades on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crown

Crown Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the packaging business in the United States and internationally. It operates through Americas Beverage, European Beverage, Asia Pacific, and Transit Packaging segments. The company manufactures and sells recyclable aluminum beverage cans and ends, glass bottles, steel crowns, aluminum caps, non-beverage cans, and aerosol cans and closures. It also provides manual, semi-automatic, and automatic equipment and tools to apply and remove consumables, such as straps and films; protective solutions, including airbags, edge protectors, and honeycomb products; and steel and plastic consumables include steel strap, plastic strap, industrial film, and other related products. The company serves food industries, including pet food, personal care, household, and industrial products. Crown Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Yardley, Pennsylvania.

About Cascades

Cascades Inc. produces, converts, and markets packaging and tissue products in Canada and the United States. The company operates through three segments: Containerboard, Specialty Products, and Tissue Papers. It offers various packaging solutions and tissue products comprised of recycled fibers; tissue papers, comprising parent rolls of virgin and recycled fibres; specialty products, including uncoated recycled boxboards; and containerboards. It also engages in the recovery and recycling activities. Cascades Inc. was incorporated in 1964 and is headquartered in Kingsey Falls, Canada.