SSAB (OTCMKTS:SSAAY) & McEwen (NYSE:MUX) Financial Contrast

McEwen (NYSE:MUX) and SSAB (OTCMKTS:SSAAY) are both materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

17.0% of McEwen shares are held by institutional investors. 14.8% of McEwen shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

McEwen has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SSAB has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for McEwen and SSAB, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
McEwen	0	2	3	0	2.60
SSAB	0	2	3	0	2.60

McEwen presently has a consensus price target of $28.00, suggesting a potential upside of 50.68%. Given McEwen’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe McEwen is more favorable than SSAB.

Profitability

This table compares McEwen and SSAB’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
McEwen	32.46%	13.48%	9.13%
SSAB	5.73%	8.18%	5.26%

Dividends

McEwen pays an annual dividend of $0.01 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. SSAB pays an annual dividend of $0.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. McEwen pays out 0.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SSAB pays out 16.7% 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares McEwen and SSAB”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
McEwen	$248.44 million	4.59	$34.43 million	$1.26	14.75
SSAB	$9.84 billion	1.11	$500.98 million	$0.30	18.23

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

Summary

McEwen beats SSAB on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About McEwen

McEwen Mining Inc. engages in the exploration, development, production, and sale of gold and silver. It also explores for copper deposits. The company owns 100% interests in the El Gallo and Fenix projects located in Mexico; and the Black Fox Mine and Stock Mill, Grey Fox, and Froome and Tamarack properties in Canada. It also owns interests in the Fuller, Davidson-Tisdale, Buffalo Ankerite, and Paymaster exploration properties located in Canada; and a 49% interest in the San José mine located in Argentina. In addition, the company owns 100% interests in the Gold Bar and Tonkin properties located in Eureka County, Nevada; and interests in the Los Azules copper project located in the cordilleran region in the province of San Juan, Argentina. The company was formerly known as US Gold Corporation and changed its name to McEwen Mining Inc. in January 2012. McEwen Mining Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About SSAB

SSAB AB (publ) produces and sells steel products in Sweden, Finland, Rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. It operates through five segments: SSAB Special Steels, SSAB Europe, SSAB Americas, Tibnor, and Ruukki Construction. The SSAB Special Steels segment offers quenched and tempered steels, and advanced high-strength steel products for steel and plate production. The SSAB Europe segment provides strip, heavy plate, and tubular products. The SSAB Americas segment sells heavy plates for steel and plate production. The Tibnor segment distributes a range of steel and non-ferrous metals in the Nordics and Baltics. The Ruukki Construction segment produces and sells energy-efficient building and construction solutions. It markets its steel products under the Strenx, Hardox, Docol, GreenCoat, Toolox, Armox, Duroxite, SSAB AM, SSAB Boron, SSAB Domex, SSAB Form, SSAB Laser, SSAB Weathering, Cor-Ten, and SSAB Multisteel brands. The company's products are used by customers in the heavy transport, construction and infrastructure, industrial applications, construction machinery, energy, and material handling markets. SSAB AB (publ) was founded in 1878 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.