Head to Head Contrast: Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBSW) and Materion (NYSE:MTRN)

Materion (NYSE:MTRN) and Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBSW) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.6% of Materion shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 34.9% of Sibanye Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Materion shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Sibanye Gold shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Materion and Sibanye Gold, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Materion	0	2	1	0	2.33
Sibanye Gold	1	1	2	2	2.83

Materion currently has a consensus price target of $161.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.70%. Sibanye Gold has a consensus price target of $12.87, suggesting a potential downside of 23.69%. Given Materion’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Materion is more favorable than Sibanye Gold.

Volatility & Risk

Materion has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sibanye Gold has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Materion and Sibanye Gold”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Materion	$1.68 billion	1.70	$5.89 million	$0.95	145.22
Sibanye Gold	$6.12 billion	N/A	-$398.42 million	N/A	N/A

Materion has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sibanye Gold.

Profitability

This table compares Materion and Sibanye Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Materion	1.12%	12.66%	6.53%
Sibanye Gold	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Materion beats Sibanye Gold on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Materion

Materion Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, produces advanced engineered materials used in semiconductor, industrial, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, consumer electronics, and telecom and data center in the United States, Asia, Europe, and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Performance Materials, Electronic Materials, Precision Optics, and Other. The company provides advanced engineered solutions comprising beryllium and non-beryllium containing alloy systems and custom engineered parts in strip, bulk, rod, plate, bar, tube, and other customized shapes; engineering and product development services; alloyed metals, beryllium products, and beryllium hydroxide; precision strip, rod, and wire products, as well as engineered strip metal products; and ToughMet alloys and SupremEX aluminum silicon carbide metal matrix composite formulation products. It operates the bertrandite ore mine and refinery located in Utah that provides feedstock hydroxide for its beryllium businesses and external sale. In addition, it produces advanced chemicals, microelectronics packaging, precious metal, non-precious metal, and specialty metal products, including vapor deposition targets, frame lid assemblies, clad and precious metal pre-forms, high temperature braze materials, and ultra-pure wire. Further, the company designs and produces precision thin film coatings, optical filters, and assemblies. The company sells its products directly from its facilities, as well as through company-owned service centers, outside distributors, agents, direct sales offices, and independent sales representatives. The company was formerly known as Brush Engineered Materials Inc. and changed its name to Materion Corporation in March 2011. Materion Corporation was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

About Sibanye Gold

Sibanye Stillwater Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a precious metals mining company in South Africa, the United States, Europe, and Australia. The company produces gold; platinum group metals (PGMs), including palladium, platinum, rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium; chrome; nickel; and silver, cobalt, and copper. It owns the East Boulder and Stillwater mines located in Montana, the United States; and Columbus metallurgical complex, which smelts the material mined to produce PGM-rich filter cake, as well as conducts PGM recycling activities. The company also involved in the Kroondal, Rustenburg, Marikana, and Platinum Mile operations situated in South Africa; Mimosa located on the southern portion in Zimbabwe; the Driefontein, Kloof, Rand Refinery, and Cooke surface operations located on the West Rand of the Witwatersrand Basin; and the Beatrix situated in the southern Free State. In addition, it owns an interest in surface tailings retreatment facilities; the Marathon PGM project in Ontario, Canada; the Altar and Rio Grande copper gold projects in the Andes in north-west Argentina; the Hoedspruit; and the Burnstone and southern Free State gold projects in South Africa. Sibanye Stillwater Limited was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Weltevreden Park, South Africa.