Contrasting Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Bion Environmental Technologies (OTCMKTS:BNET)

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Bion Environmental Technologies (OTCMKTS:BNET) are both materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Albemarle and Bion Environmental Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Albemarle	3.09%	10.96%	5.39%
Bion Environmental Technologies	N/A	N/A	-3,552.13%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Albemarle and Bion Environmental Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Albemarle	1	10	15	0	2.54
Bion Environmental Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00

Albemarle currently has a consensus target price of $190.04, indicating a potential upside of 39.72%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Bion Environmental Technologies.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.9% of Albemarle shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.4% of Bion Environmental Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Albemarle shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 39.2% of Bion Environmental Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Albemarle and Bion Environmental Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle	$5.14 billion	3.12	-$510.63 million	$0.27	503.77
Bion Environmental Technologies	N/A	N/A	-$2.38 million	($0.03)	-5.67

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

Volatility and Risk

Albemarle has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bion Environmental Technologies has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Albemarle beats Bion Environmental Technologies on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Specialties segment provides bromine-based specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals; lithium specialties, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride; develops and manufactures cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators. The Ketjen segment offers clean fuels technologies (CFT), which is composed of hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) together with isomerization and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives; and performance catalyst solutions (PCS), which is composed of organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About Bion Environmental Technologies

Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. develops patented and proprietary technology that provides waste treatment and resource recovery solutions for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the United States and internationally. The company offers Gen3Tech, a third-generation technology and business/technology platform, which remediates environmental problems and improve operational/resource efficiencies through recovering co-products from the CAFOs’ waste stream, including renewable energy, fertilizer products, and clean water. It also focuses on the installation of its systems to retrofit and environmentally remediate existing CAFOs; development of waste treatment facilities; and licensing and/or joint venturing of its technology and applications. Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is based in Old Bethpage, New York.