Contrasting Ryerson (RYZ) and Its Peers

Ryerson (NYSE:RYZ) is one of 158 public companies in the “Trading Companies & Distributors” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Ryerson to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.8% of Ryerson shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.9% of shares of all “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies are owned by institutional investors. 6.6% of Ryerson shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.1% of shares of all “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies are owned by 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 Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Ryerson and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ryerson	2	1	0	0	1.33
Ryerson Competitors	1409	4855	6646	217	2.43

As a group, “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies have a potential upside of 5.26%. Given Ryerson’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ryerson has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ryerson and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ryerson	$4.57 billion	-$56.40 million	-23.45
Ryerson Competitors	$6.48 billion	$363.90 million	25.33

Ryerson’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Ryerson. Ryerson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Ryerson and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ryerson	-0.56%	-0.62%	-0.21%
Ryerson Competitors	0.68%	-34.57%	3.12%

Volatility & Risk

Ryerson has a beta of 1.65, indicating that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ryerson’s peers have a beta of 1.28, indicating that their average stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Ryerson pays an annual dividend of $0.75 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Ryerson pays out -60.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.9% and pay out 36.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Ryerson peers beat Ryerson on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

Ryerson Company Profile

Ryerson Holding Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, processes and distributes industrial metals in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China. It offers a line of products in carbon steel, stainless steel, alloy steels, and aluminum, as well as nickel and red metals in various shapes and forms, including coils, sheets, rounds, hexagons, square and flat bars, plates, structural, and tubing. The company also provides various processing services, such as bending, beveling, blanking, blasting, burning, cutting-to-length, drilling, embossing, flattening, forming, grinding, laser cutting, machining, notching, painting, perforating, polishing, punching, rolling, sawing, scribing, shearing, slitting, stamping, tapping, threading, welding, or other techniques to process materials. It serves various industries, including commercial ground transportation, metal fabrication and machine shops, industrial machinery and equipment manufacturing, consumer durable equipment, HVAC manufacturing, construction equipment manufacturing, food processing and agricultural equipment manufacturing, and oil and gas. The company was founded in 1842 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.