Contrasting Shanghai Electric Group (OTCMKTS:SIELY) & Albemarle (NYSE:ALB)

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Shanghai Electric Group (OTCMKTS:SIELY) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Albemarle and Shanghai Electric Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Albemarle	1	10	15	0	2.54
Shanghai Electric Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Albemarle currently has a consensus price target of $192.30, suggesting a potential upside of 46.22%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Shanghai Electric Group.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Albemarle and Shanghai Electric Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle	$5.91 billion	2.63	-$510.63 million	$0.27	487.11
Shanghai Electric Group	$18.29 billion	0.36	$174.10 million	N/A	N/A

Shanghai Electric Group has higher revenue and earnings than Albemarle.

Volatility and Risk

Albemarle has a beta of 1.33, suggesting that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shanghai Electric Group has a beta of -0.03, suggesting that its stock price is 103% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.9% of Albemarle shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Albemarle shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Albemarle and Shanghai Electric Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Albemarle	3.09%	10.96%	5.39%
Shanghai Electric Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Albemarle pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Shanghai Electric Group pays an annual dividend of $0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Albemarle pays out 607.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Albemarle has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Albemarle is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Albemarle beats Shanghai Electric Group on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Specialties segment provides bromine-based specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals; lithium specialties, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride; develops and manufactures cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators. The Ketjen segment offers clean fuels technologies (CFT), which is composed of hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) together with isomerization and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives; and performance catalyst solutions (PCS), which is composed of organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About Shanghai Electric Group

Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. provides industrial grade green intelligent system solutions in Mainland China and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Energy Equipment, Industrial Equipment, and Integration Services. The Energy Equipment segment designs, manufactures, and sells nuclear power, energy storage, wind power, coal-fired power generation and corollary, and gas-fired power generation equipment; and vessels for chemical industry, as well as provides power grid and industrial intelligent power supply system solutions. The Industrial Equipment segment provides elevators, electric motors, and industrial basic parts; and intelligent manufacturing and construction industrialization equipment. The Integration Services segment offers energy, environmental protection, and automation engineering services; industrial internet; financing leasing, factoring, asset management, insurance brokerage, etc. services; and international trade and property management services. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric Holding Group Co., Ltd.