Financial Contrast: Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX) and PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG)

Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX) and PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Minerals Technologies and PPG Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Minerals Technologies	2	0	1	0	1.67
PPG Industries	1	9	7	1	2.44

Minerals Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $84.00, indicating a potential upside of 37.91%. PPG Industries has a consensus target price of $122.54, indicating a potential upside of 19.71%. Given Minerals Technologies’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Minerals Technologies is more favorable than PPG Industries.

Profitability

This table compares Minerals Technologies and PPG Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Minerals Technologies	-0.08%	10.69%	5.31%
PPG Industries	6.35%	23.61%	8.28%

Dividends

Minerals Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. PPG Industries pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Minerals Technologies pays out -2,400.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. PPG Industries pays out 64.4% 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. Minerals Technologies has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and PPG Industries has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years. PPG Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Minerals Technologies and PPG Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Minerals Technologies	$2.12 billion	0.90	$167.10 million	($0.02)	-3,045.50
PPG Industries	$15.85 billion	1.45	$1.12 billion	$4.41	23.21

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.3% of Minerals Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.9% of PPG Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of Minerals Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of PPG Industries shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Minerals Technologies has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PPG Industries has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

PPG Industries beats Minerals Technologies on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Minerals Technologies

Minerals Technologies Inc. develops, produces, and markets various mineral, mineral-based, and related systems and services. The company operates through two segments, Consumer & Specialties, and Engineered Solutions segments. The Consumer & Specialties segment offers household and personal care products, such as pet litter, personal care, fabric care, edible oil and other fluid purification, animal health, and agricultural products; and specialty additives products, including precipitated calcium carbonate and ground calcium carbonate products that are used in the paper, paperboard, and fiber based packaging industries, as well as automotive, construction, and table and food applications. This segment produces limestone and dolomitic limestone used in construction, automotive, and consumer markets for packaging applications. The Engineered Solutions segment provides high-temperature technology products consisting of custom-blended mineral and non-mineral products for casting auto parts, farm and construction equipment, oil and gas production equipment, power generation turbine castings, and rail car components; and environmental and infrastructure products comprising geosynthetic clay lining systems, vapor intrusion mitigation products, sub surface waterproofing systems, green roofs, wastewater remediation, drinking water purification technologies, and drilling products. In addition, this segment provides chromite products; gunnable monolithic refractory products and application systems; monolithic refractory materials and pre-cast refractory shapes; refractory shapes and linings; carbon composite and pyrolitic graphite; and filtration and well testing services. It markets its products primarily through its direct sales force, as well as regional distributors. The company serves in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Minerals Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About PPG Industries

PPG Industries, Inc. manufactures and distributes paints, coatings, and specialty materials in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through two segments, Performance Coatings and Industrial Coatings. The Performance Coatings segment offers coatings, solvents, adhesives, sealants, sundries, and software for automotive and commercial transport/fleet repair and refurbishing, light industrial coatings, and specialty coatings for signs; wood stains; paints, thermoplastics, pavement marking products, and other advanced technologies for pavement marking for government, commercial infrastructure, painting, and maintenance contractors; and coatings, sealants, transparencies, transparent armor, adhesives, engineered materials, and packaging and chemical management services for commercial, military, regional jet, and general aviation aircraft. The Industrial Coatings segment offers coatings, adhesives and sealants, and metal pretreatments, as well as services and coatings applications for appliances, agricultural and construction equipment, consumer electronics, automotive parts and accessories, building products, kitchenware, and transportation vehicles and other finished products; and on-site coatings services. It also provides coatings for metal cans, closures, plastic and aluminum tubes for food, beverage and personal care, promotional, and specialty packaging; amorphous precipitated silica for tire, battery separator, and other end-uses; TESLIN substrates for labels, e-passports, drivers' licenses, breathable membranes, and loyalty and identification cards; and organic light emitting diode materials, displays and lighting lens materials, optical lenses, color-change products, and photochromic dyes. PPG Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1883 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.