Sandstorm Gold (NYSE:SAND) & Allied Gold (NYSE:AAUC) Head-To-Head Review

Sandstorm Gold (NYSE:SAND) and Allied Gold (NYSE:AAUC) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Sandstorm Gold and Allied Gold, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sandstorm Gold	1	3	4	0	2.38
Allied Gold	1	1	0	1	2.33

Sandstorm Gold currently has a consensus target price of $10.15, indicating a potential downside of 16.50%. Given Sandstorm Gold’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Sandstorm Gold is more favorable than Allied Gold.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sandstorm Gold and Allied Gold”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sandstorm Gold	$193.59 million	18.52	$14.29 million	$0.12	101.29
Allied Gold	$730.38 million	2.84	-$115.63 million	($0.36)	-46.39

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

Profitability

This table compares Sandstorm Gold and Allied Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sandstorm Gold	17.78%	2.38%	1.87%
Allied Gold	-3.58%	24.32%	7.40%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.0% of Sandstorm Gold shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Sandstorm Gold shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Sandstorm Gold beats Allied Gold on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sandstorm Gold

Sandstorm Gold Ltd. operates as a gold royalty company. The company focuses on acquiring royalties and gold and other metals purchase agreements from companies that have advanced stage operating mines. It offers upfront payments for companies to acquire a stream and receives the right to purchase a percentage of a mine's production for the life of the mine. The company has a portfolio of 243 streams and royalties. It primarily has operations in Canada, Mexico, the United States, Mongolia, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, South Africa, Ghana, Botswana, Cote D'Ivoire, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guyana, Paraguay, French Guiana, Turkey, Sweden, Fiji, and Australia. The company was formerly known as Sandstorm Resources Ltd. and changed its name to Sandstorm Gold Ltd. in February 2011. Sandstorm Gold Ltd. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Allied Gold

Allied Gold Corporation is a gold producer. It operates a portfolio of producing assets and development projects located principally in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Ethiopia. Allied Gold Corporation is based in Canada.