Contrasting Nucor (NYSE:NUE) & Alpha Metallurgical Resources (NYSE:AMR)

Alpha Metallurgical Resources (NYSE:AMR) and Nucor (NYSE:NUE) are both materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Alpha Metallurgical Resources and Nucor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alpha Metallurgical Resources	-2.23%	-2.99%	-2.01%
Nucor	7.99%	12.73%	8.03%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.3% of Alpha Metallurgical Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Nucor shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.2% of Alpha Metallurgical Resources shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Nucor shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Alpha Metallurgical Resources has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nucor has a beta of 1.84, indicating that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Alpha Metallurgical Resources and Nucor”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alpha Metallurgical Resources	$2.13 billion	0.94	-$61.69 million	($3.58)	-44.28
Nucor	$32.49 billion	1.83	$1.74 billion	$12.54	20.87

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Alpha Metallurgical Resources and Nucor, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alpha Metallurgical Resources	2	5	0	0	1.71
Nucor	0	3	13	1	2.88

Alpha Metallurgical Resources currently has a consensus price target of $179.75, suggesting a potential upside of 13.38%. Nucor has a consensus price target of $276.86, suggesting a potential upside of 5.81%. Given Alpha Metallurgical Resources’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Alpha Metallurgical Resources is more favorable than Nucor.

Summary

Nucor beats Alpha Metallurgical Resources on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alpha Metallurgical Resources

Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc., a mining company, produces, processes, and sells met and thermal coal in Virginia and West Virginia. The company offers metallurgical coal products. It operates twenty-two active mines and nine coal preparation and load-out facilities. The company was formerly known as Contura Energy, Inc. and changed its name to Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc. in February 2021. Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Bristol, Tennessee.

About Nucor

Nucor Corporation engages in manufacture and sale of steel and steel products. It operates in three segments: steel mills, steel products, and raw materials. The Steel Mills segment produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized sheet steel products; plate steel products; wide-flange beams, beam blanks, and H-piling and sheet piling structural steel products; bar steel products, such as blooms, billets, concrete reinforcing and merchant bars, and engineered special bar quality products; and engages in the steel trading and rebar distribution businesses. This segment sells its products to steel service centers, fabricators, and manufacturers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Steel Products segment offers steel joists and joist girders, steel decks, and galvanized torque tubes for used in solar arrays, hollow structural section steel tubing, electrical conduit, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, steel grating and expanded metal, wire and wire mesh, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel racking, overhead doors, and utility towers and structures for communications and energy transmission. This segment is also involved in the piling distribution business. The Raw Materials segment produces direct reduced iron (DRI); brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron, hot briquetted iron, and DRI; supplies ferro-alloys; processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal; and engages in the natural gas production and industrial gas business. This segment sells its ferrous scrap to electric arc furnace steel mills and foundries for manufacturing process; and nonferrous scrap metal to aluminum can producers, secondary aluminum smelters, steel mills and other processors, and consumers of various nonferrous metals. It markets its products through in-house sales force; and internal distribution and trading companies. Nucor Corporation was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.