Analyzing Chemours (NYSE:CC) & Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN)

Chemours (NYSE:CC) and Eastman Chemical (NYSE:EMN) are both mid-cap materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Chemours and Eastman Chemical”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chemours	$5.81 billion	0.39	-$386.00 million	($1.91)	-7.89
Eastman Chemical	$8.75 billion	0.89	$474.00 million	$3.84	17.79

Eastman Chemical has higher revenue and earnings than Chemours. Chemours is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Eastman Chemical, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.3% of Chemours shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of Eastman Chemical shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Chemours shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Eastman Chemical shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Chemours and Eastman Chemical, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chemours	2	5	5	0	2.25
Eastman Chemical	0	8	6	0	2.43

Chemours presently has a consensus target price of $20.10, suggesting a potential upside of 33.42%. Eastman Chemical has a consensus target price of $79.17, suggesting a potential upside of 15.86%. Given Chemours’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Chemours is more favorable than Eastman Chemical.

Dividends

Chemours pays an annual dividend of $0.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Eastman Chemical pays an annual dividend of $3.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Chemours pays out -18.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eastman Chemical pays out 87.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Eastman Chemical has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Eastman Chemical is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

Chemours has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastman Chemical has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Chemours and Eastman Chemical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chemours	-5.00%	60.64%	1.48%
Eastman Chemical	4.99%	9.46%	3.78%

Summary

Eastman Chemical beats Chemours on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chemours

The Chemours Company provides performance chemicals in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It operates through three segments: Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials. The Titanium Technologies segment provides TiO2 pigment under the Ti-Pure brand for delivering whiteness, brightness, opacity, durability, efficiency, and protection in various of applications, such as architectural and industrial coatings, flexible and rigid plastic packaging, polyvinylchloride, laminate papers used for furniture and building materials, coated paper, and coated paperboard used for packaging. The Thermal & Specialized Solutions segment offers of refrigerants, thermal management solutions, propellants, foam blowing agents, and specialty solvents. The Advanced Performance Materials segment products portfolio includes various industrial resins, specialty products, membranes, and coatings for electronics, communications, transportation, wire and cable, energy, oil and gas, and medical, and other applications under the eflon, Viton, Krytox, and Nafion brands. The company sells its products through direct and indirect channels, as well as through a network of resellers and distributors. The Chemours Company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

About Eastman Chemical

Eastman Chemical Company operates as a specialty materials company in the United States, China, and internationally. The company's Additives & Functional Products segment offers amine derivative-based building blocks, intermediates for surfactants, metam-based soil fumigants, and organic acid-based solutions; specialty coalescent and solvents, paint additives, and specialty polymers; and heat transfer and aviation fluids. It serves transportation, personal care, wellness, food, feed, agriculture, building and construction, water treatment, energy, consumables, durables, and electronics markets. Its Advanced Materials segment provides copolyesters, cellulosic biopolymers, cellulose esters, polyvinyl butyral sheets, and window and protective films for value-added end uses in the transportation, durables, electronics, building and construction, medical and pharma, and consumables markets. The company's Chemical Intermediates segment offers olefin and acetyl derivatives, ethylene, and commodity solvents; and primary non-phthalate and phthalate plasticizers, and niche non-phthalate plasticizers for industrial chemicals and processing, building and construction, health and wellness, and food and feed. Its Fibers segment provides cellulose acetate tow, triacetin, cellulose acetate flake, acetic acid, and acetic anhydride for use in filtration media primarily cigarette filters; natural and solution dyed acetate yarns, and staple fiber for use in consumables, and health and wellness markets; and wet-laid nonwoven media, specialty and engineered papers, and cellulose acetate fibers for transportation, industrial, agriculture and mining, and aerospace markets. The company was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee.