Asahi Glass (OTCMKTS:ASGLY) and Trinseo (NYSE:TSE) Financial Review

Asahi Glass (OTCMKTS:ASGLY) and Trinseo (NYSE:TSE) are both materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Asahi Glass and Trinseo, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Asahi Glass	0	1	0	0	2.00
Trinseo	1	2	0	0	1.67

Trinseo has a consensus price target of $1.00, suggesting a potential upside of 334.78%. Given Trinseo’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Trinseo is more favorable than Asahi Glass.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

82.7% of Trinseo shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.5% of Trinseo shares are owned by 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.

Profitability

This table compares Asahi Glass and Trinseo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Asahi Glass	4.22%	5.28%	3.05%
Trinseo	-13.15%	N/A	-11.72%

Risk and Volatility

Asahi Glass has a beta of 0.46, meaning that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Trinseo has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Asahi Glass pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Trinseo pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 17.4%. Asahi Glass pays out 29.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Trinseo pays out -0.3% 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. Trinseo has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Trinseo is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Asahi Glass and Trinseo”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Asahi Glass	$13.77 billion	0.58	$463.39 million	$0.55	13.25
Trinseo	$3.13 billion	0.00	-$348.50 million	($11.55)	-0.02

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

Summary

Asahi Glass beats Trinseo on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Asahi Glass

AGC Inc. manufactures and sells glass, automotive, electronics, chemicals, and ceramics worldwide. The company offers architectural glass products, including laminated, insulating, wired, solar control, toughened, decorative, sound insulation, float and patterned, and industrial glasses; structural glazing systems; and automotive glass, such as laminated, tempered, and privacy glasses, as well as integrated glass antennas and module assembly windows. It also provides glass substrates for thin-film-transistor liquid crystal displays and OLEDs; synthetic fused silica glass, synthetic quartz crystals, silicon carbides, CMP slurry, through glass Vias, high refractive index glass, diffusers, glass ceramics substrates, optical planar devices, IR cut filters, aspherical glass and molded lens, and micro lens array products; polycarbonate and optical sheets, thin sheets, and films; and glass frits and pastes, as well as glass substrates for semiconductor packaging and other electronic materials. In addition, the company offers cover glass for smartphones and tablet devices; glass substrates for photovoltaic devices and touch panels; specialty glass; extra clear float glass; transparent conductive oxide glass for a-Si type solar module; and ultra-thin glass for electronics devices. Further, it provides chlor-alkali, polyurethanes, fluoro, and specialty chemical products; high thermal insulation ceramics wall for furnaces; and ceramic beads, sputtering targets, abrasion resistant ceramics, alumina cement, engineering fine ceramics, and ceramics molding agents for 3D printers. Additionally, the company engages in the digital signage on glass, copper clad laminate, and plastic optical fiber businesses; and gas and solvents, and life Science businesses. The company was formerly known as Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. and changed its name to AGC Inc. in July 2018. AGC Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About Trinseo

Trinseo PLC operates as a specialty material solutions provider in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Engineered Materials, Latex Binders, Plastics Solutions, Polystyrene, and Americas Styrenics. The Engineered Materials segment offers rigid thermoplastic compounds and blends, soft thermoplastic, continuous cast, cell cast, activated methyl methacrylates (MMA), PMMA resins, and extruded PMMA sheets and resins for consumer electronics, medical, footwear, automotive, and building and construction applications under the EMERGE, CALIBRE, PLEXIGLAS, ALTUGLAS, ACRYSPA, AVONITE, STUDIO, MEGOL, APILON, APIGO, and APINAT brands. The Latex Binders segment provides styrene-butadiene latex, and other latex polymers and binders primarily for coated paper and packaging board, carpet, and artificial turf backings, as well as the adhesive, building and construction, and technical textile paper market. The Plastics Solutions segment offers acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, styrene-acrylonitrile, polycarbonate, and compounds and blends for automotive and other applications under the MAGNUM brand. The Polystyrene segment provides general purpose polystyrenes and high impact polystyrene for use in appliances, food packaging and food service disposables, consumer electronics, and building and construction materials under the STYRON brand. The Americas Styrenics segment provides styrene and polystyrene for appliances, food packaging, food service disposables, consumer electronics, and building and construction materials applications. Trinseo PLC was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania.