Financial Review: Austin Gold (NYSE:AUST) & Northern Dynasty Minerals (NASDAQ:NAK)

Austin Gold (NYSE:AUST) and Northern Dynasty Minerals (NASDAQ:NAK) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

62.1% of Austin Gold shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.6% of Northern Dynasty Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. 70.7% of Austin Gold shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Northern Dynasty Minerals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Austin Gold and Northern Dynasty Minerals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Austin Gold	0	0	0	0	0.00
Northern Dynasty Minerals	0	0	1	0	3.00

Northern Dynasty Minerals has a consensus price target of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.64%. Given Northern Dynasty Minerals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Northern Dynasty Minerals is more favorable than Austin Gold.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Austin Gold and Northern Dynasty Minerals”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Austin Gold	N/A	N/A	-$4.00 million	($0.14)	-12.00
Northern Dynasty Minerals	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.12)	-18.33

Northern Dynasty Minerals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Austin Gold, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Austin Gold and Northern Dynasty Minerals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Austin Gold	N/A	-37.85%	-36.54%
Northern Dynasty Minerals	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

Austin Gold has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northern Dynasty Minerals has a beta of -0.06, indicating that its stock price is 106% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Northern Dynasty Minerals beats Austin Gold on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Austin Gold

Austin Gold Corp., a gold exploration company, focuses on the acquisition, exploration, and evaluation of mineral property interests in Nevada. The company holds interest in Kelly Creek Project located in the Kelly Creek Basin, in southeastern Humboldt County, Nevada; Fourmile Basin Project that comprises various unpatented lode mining claims covering approximately 6410 acres located in Nye County; the Lone Mountain Project consisting of various unpatented lode mining and patented mining claims located near Lone Mountain in Elko County. It also holds interest in the Miller Project consisting various unpatented lode mining claims located in Elko County in Nevada. Austin Gold Corp. was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Northern Dynasty Minerals

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. engages in the exploration of mineral properties in the United States. Its principal mineral property is the Pebble Copper-Gold-Molybdenum-Silver-Rhenium project comprising 1,840 mineral claims that covers an area of approximately 274 square miles located in southwest Alaska, 17 miles from the villages of Iliamna and Newhalen, and approximately 200 miles southwest of the city of Anchorage. The company was formerly known as Northern Dynasty Explorations Ltd. and changed its name to Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. in October 1997. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.