Head to Head Comparison: Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) vs. Barrick Mining (NYSE:B)

Barrick Mining (NYSE:B) and Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) are both large-cap materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Barrick Mining and Wheaton Precious Metals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barrick Mining	0	6	15	1	2.77
Wheaton Precious Metals	0	2	10	0	2.83

Barrick Mining presently has a consensus price target of $52.59, indicating a potential upside of 30.51%. Wheaton Precious Metals has a consensus price target of $166.56, indicating a potential upside of 23.83%. Given Barrick Mining’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Barrick Mining is more favorable than Wheaton Precious Metals.

Profitability

This table compares Barrick Mining and Wheaton Precious Metals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barrick Mining	31.60%	16.02%	11.22%
Wheaton Precious Metals	64.66%	21.97%	19.83%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.8% of Barrick Mining shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of Wheaton Precious Metals shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.2% of Barrick Mining 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Barrick Mining and Wheaton Precious Metals”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barrick Mining	$20.66 billion	3.18	$4.99 billion	$3.88	10.39
Wheaton Precious Metals	$2.31 billion	26.39	$1.47 billion	$4.51	29.82

Barrick Mining has higher revenue and earnings than Wheaton Precious Metals. Barrick Mining is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wheaton Precious Metals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Barrick Mining has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wheaton Precious Metals has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Barrick Mining pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Wheaton Precious Metals pays an annual dividend of $0.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Barrick Mining pays out 18.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wheaton Precious Metals pays out 17.3% 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. Wheaton Precious Metals has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Summary

Wheaton Precious Metals beats Barrick Mining on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barrick Mining

Barrick Gold Corporation is a sector-leading gold and copper producer.  Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GOLD and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ABX.
 
In January 2019 Barrick merged with Randgold Resources and in July that year it combined its gold mines in Nevada, USA, with those of Newmont Corporation in a joint venture, Nevada Gold Mines, which is majority-owned and operated by Barrick. Nevada Gold Mines is the world’s largest gold mining complex.  Barrick owns and operates six Tier One gold mines:  Cortez, Carlin and Turquoise Ridge in Nevada, Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali, Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic.
 
It has gold and copper mines and projects in 13 countries in North and South America, Africa, Papua New Guinea and Saudi Arabia. Barrick’s diversified portfolio spans the world’s most prolific gold districts and is focused on high-margin, long life assets.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. primarily sells precious metals in North America, Europe, and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, palladium, and cobalt deposits. The company was formerly known as Silver Wheaton Corp. and changed its name to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. in May 2017. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.