Head to Head Comparison: Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX) & Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR)

Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX) and Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Minerals Technologies has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quaker Houghton has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Minerals Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Quaker Houghton pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Minerals Technologies pays out 9.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Quaker Houghton pays out 725.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Minerals Technologies has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Quaker Houghton has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years. Quaker Houghton is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Minerals Technologies and Quaker Houghton, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Minerals Technologies	0	2	1	0	2.33
Quaker Houghton	1	1	4	0	2.50

Minerals Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $90.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.58%. Quaker Houghton has a consensus price target of $168.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.66%. Given Minerals Technologies’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Minerals Technologies is more favorable than Quaker Houghton.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Minerals Technologies and Quaker Houghton”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Minerals Technologies	$2.07 billion	1.16	-$18.40 million	$5.17	14.93
Quaker Houghton	$1.89 billion	1.38	-$2.49 million	$0.28	537.36

Quaker Houghton has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Minerals Technologies. Minerals Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Quaker Houghton, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Minerals Technologies and Quaker Houghton’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Minerals Technologies	7.60%	10.40%	5.19%
Quaker Houghton	0.22%	9.03%	4.39%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.3% of Minerals Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.5% of Quaker Houghton shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Minerals Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Quaker Houghton shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Minerals Technologies beats Quaker Houghton on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Minerals Technologies

Minerals Technologies Inc. develops, produces, and markets various mineral, mineral-based, and related systems and services. The company operates through two segments, Consumer & Specialties, and Engineered Solutions segments. The Consumer & Specialties segment offers household and personal care products, such as pet litter, personal care, fabric care, edible oil and other fluid purification, animal health, and agricultural products; and specialty additives products, including precipitated calcium carbonate and ground calcium carbonate products that are used in the paper, paperboard, and fiber based packaging industries, as well as automotive, construction, and table and food applications. This segment produces limestone and dolomitic limestone used in construction, automotive, and consumer markets for packaging applications. The Engineered Solutions segment provides high-temperature technology products consisting of custom-blended mineral and non-mineral products for casting auto parts, farm and construction equipment, oil and gas production equipment, power generation turbine castings, and rail car components; and environmental and infrastructure products comprising geosynthetic clay lining systems, vapor intrusion mitigation products, sub surface waterproofing systems, green roofs, wastewater remediation, drinking water purification technologies, and drilling products. In addition, this segment provides chromite products; gunnable monolithic refractory products and application systems; monolithic refractory materials and pre-cast refractory shapes; refractory shapes and linings; carbon composite and pyrolitic graphite; and filtration and well testing services. It markets its products primarily through its direct sales force, as well as regional distributors. The company serves in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Minerals Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Quaker Houghton

Quaker Chemical Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets various formulated specialty chemical products for a range of heavy industrial and manufacturing applications in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers metal removal fluids, cleaning fluids, corrosion inhibitors, metal drawing and forming fluids, die-cast mold releases, heat treatment and quenchants, metal forging fluids, hydraulic fluids, specialty greases, offshore sub-sea energy control fluids, rolling lubricants, rod and wire drawing fluids, and surface treatment chemicals. The company also provides chemical management services. It serves steel, aluminum, automotive, aerospace, offshore, container, mining, and metalworking companies. The company was founded in 1918 and is headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.