Financial Analysis: Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) & Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group (OTCMKTS:KWBT)

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group (OTCMKTS:KWBT) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Albemarle and Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Albemarle	-10.74%	0.41%	0.19%
Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Albemarle and Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle	$5.14 billion	4.45	-$510.63 million	($5.75)	-33.73
Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group has lower revenue, but higher 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 insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Albemarle and Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Albemarle	2	12	13	0	2.41
Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Albemarle currently has a consensus target price of $183.00, indicating a potential downside of 5.65%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group.

Summary

Albemarle beats Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group

Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes bio-technological products for the agricultural market primarily in the People's Republic of China. It offers bacillus species and/or photosynthetic bacteria based biological organic, compound microbial, bio-water soluble, and microbial inoculum fertilizers. The company has a strategic cooperation agreements with the Beijing Zhongpin Agricultural Science and Technology Development Center; China Academy of Agricultural Science's Institute of Agricultural Resources & Regional Planning; and Institute of Agricultural Economy & Development, as well as Kiwa Bio-Tech (Yangling) Co. Ltd. Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group Corporation was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Yangling, China.