Head-To-Head Analysis: i-80 Gold (NYSE:IAUX) and New Found Gold (NYSE:NFGC)

i-80 Gold (NYSE:IAUX) and New Found Gold (NYSE:NFGC) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for i-80 Gold and New Found Gold, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
i-80 Gold	0	2	3	1	2.83
New Found Gold	0	0	1	0	3.00

i-80 Gold presently has a consensus price target of $1.50, suggesting a potential upside of 76.49%. New Found Gold has a consensus price target of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 177.78%. Given New Found Gold’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe New Found Gold is more favorable than i-80 Gold.

Volatility and Risk

i-80 Gold has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, New Found Gold has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

61.3% of i-80 Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.4% of New Found Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of i-80 Gold shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares i-80 Gold and New Found Gold”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
i-80 Gold	$76.62 million	9.05	-$65.20 million	($0.29)	-2.93
New Found Gold	N/A	N/A	-$59.18 million	($0.19)	-9.47

New Found Gold has lower revenue, but higher earnings than i-80 Gold. New Found Gold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than i-80 Gold, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares i-80 Gold and New Found Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
i-80 Gold	-231.43%	-21.18%	-12.67%
New Found Gold	N/A	-82.80%	-68.88%

Summary

i-80 Gold beats New Found Gold on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About i-80 Gold

i-80 Gold Corp. is a mining company, engages in the exploration, development and production of gold and silver mineral deposits principally in the United States. i-80 Gold Corp. is based in Reno, Nevada.

About New Found Gold

New Found Gold Corp., a mineral exploration company, engages in the identification, evaluation, acquisition, and exploration of mineral properties in the Provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario. It primarily explores for gold deposit. The company holds 100% interests in the Queensway project that includes 96 mineral licenses and 6,659 claims covering an area of 166,475 hectares of land located near Gander, Newfoundland; and the Kingsway project located in Gander, Newfoundland. The company was formerly known as Palisade Resources Corp. and changed its name to New Found Gold Corp. in June 2017. New Found Gold Corp. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.