Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ:KALU) & SSAB (OTCMKTS:SSAAY) Head to Head Survey

SSAB (OTCMKTS:SSAAY) and Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ:KALU) are both materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for SSAB and Kaiser Aluminum, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SSAB	0	2	3	0	2.60
Kaiser Aluminum	1	1	3	1	2.67

Kaiser Aluminum has a consensus target price of $167.25, indicating a potential upside of 10.27%. Given Kaiser Aluminum’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Kaiser Aluminum is more favorable than SSAB.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SSAB and Kaiser Aluminum”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SSAB	$9.84 billion	1.11	$500.98 million	$0.30	18.30
Kaiser Aluminum	$4.14 billion	0.60	$112.50 million	$13.49	11.24

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

Profitability

This table compares SSAB and Kaiser Aluminum’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SSAB	5.73%	8.18%	5.26%
Kaiser Aluminum	5.49%	24.71%	7.86%

Volatility & Risk

SSAB has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kaiser Aluminum has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

SSAB pays an annual dividend of $0.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Kaiser Aluminum pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. SSAB pays out 16.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kaiser Aluminum pays out 22.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.3% of Kaiser Aluminum shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Kaiser Aluminum shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Kaiser Aluminum beats SSAB on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SSAB

SSAB AB (publ) produces and sells steel products in Sweden, Finland, Rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. It operates through five segments: SSAB Special Steels, SSAB Europe, SSAB Americas, Tibnor, and Ruukki Construction. The SSAB Special Steels segment offers quenched and tempered steels, and advanced high-strength steel products for steel and plate production. The SSAB Europe segment provides strip, heavy plate, and tubular products. The SSAB Americas segment sells heavy plates for steel and plate production. The Tibnor segment distributes a range of steel and non-ferrous metals in the Nordics and Baltics. The Ruukki Construction segment produces and sells energy-efficient building and construction solutions. It markets its steel products under the Strenx, Hardox, Docol, GreenCoat, Toolox, Armox, Duroxite, SSAB AM, SSAB Boron, SSAB Domex, SSAB Form, SSAB Laser, SSAB Weathering, Cor-Ten, and SSAB Multisteel brands. The company's products are used by customers in the heavy transport, construction and infrastructure, industrial applications, construction machinery, energy, and material handling markets. SSAB AB (publ) was founded in 1878 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

About Kaiser Aluminum

Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in manufacture and sale of semi-fabricated specialty aluminum mill products in the United States and internationally. It offers rolled, extruded, and drawn aluminum products used for aerospace and defense, aluminum beverage and food packaging, automotive and general engineering products. The company's automotive extrusions include extruded aluminum products for structural components, crash management systems, anti-lock braking systems, and drawn tubes for drive shafts, as well as offers fabrication services, including sawing and cutting to length. Its packaging products consist of bare and coated 3000- and 5000-series alloy aluminum coil used for beverage and food packaging industry. In addition, the company's general engineering products comprise alloy plate, sheet, rod, bar, tube, wire, and standard extrusion shapes used in various applications, including the production of military vehicles, ordnances, semiconductor manufacturing cells, electronic devices, after-market motor sport parts, tooling plates, parts for machinery and equipment, bolts, screws, nails, and rivets. Further, its rerolled, extruded, drawn, and cast billet aluminum products used for industrial end uses. The company sells its products directly to customers through sales personnel located in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and China, as well as through independent sales agents in other regions of Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Kaiser Aluminum Corporation was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee.