Head-To-Head Analysis: PureCycle Technologies (NASDAQ:PCT) and ICL Group (NYSE:ICL)

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) and PureCycle Technologies (NASDAQ:PCT) are both materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

13.4% of ICL Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.0% of PureCycle Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.8% of PureCycle Technologies shares are owned by company 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.

Profitability

This table compares ICL Group and PureCycle Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ICL Group	3.95%	8.40%	4.19%
PureCycle Technologies	-1,370.89%	-959.19%	-22.23%

Volatility and Risk

ICL Group has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PureCycle Technologies has a beta of 2.74, meaning that its share price is 174% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for ICL Group and PureCycle Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ICL Group	0	2	0	0	2.00
PureCycle Technologies	1	1	1	0	2.00

ICL Group presently has a consensus price target of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 28.34%. PureCycle Technologies has a consensus price target of $10.75, indicating a potential upside of 404.69%. Given PureCycle Technologies’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe PureCycle Technologies is more favorable than ICL Group.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ICL Group and PureCycle Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ICL Group	$7.71 billion	0.78	$226.00 million	$0.24	19.48
PureCycle Technologies	$8.35 million	51.27	-$182.57 million	($1.15)	-1.85

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

Summary

ICL Group beats PureCycle Technologies on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ICL Group

ICL Group Ltd. is an Israel-based specialty minerals and chemicals company. Its business draws on resources including potash, phosphate and bromine to produce products for agriculture, food, industrial and other markets. The company supplies crop nutrition products and specialty fertilizers, as well as phosphate ingredients used in food and other applications. Its industrial products include bromine-based compounds, flame retardants, water-treatment chemicals and specialty minerals. ICL also develops materials for energy storage and other advanced applications.

About PureCycle Technologies

PureCycle Technologies is a plastics recycling company focused on polypropylene, a common plastic used in packaging, consumer products and automotive applications. The company uses a purification process licensed from Procter & Gamble to remove color, odor and other contaminants from waste polypropylene and produce recycled resin intended for use in a range of applications. Founded in 2015, PureCycle markets its recycled polypropylene under the PureFive brand. Its process is designed to complement conventional mechanical recycling by handling polypropylene waste that may be difficult to recycle into higher-quality material using mechanical methods alone.