Head-To-Head Survey: Worthington Steel (WS) and Its Competitors

Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) is one of 1,984 publicly-traded companies in the “Metals & Mining” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Worthington Steel to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

45.4% of Worthington Steel shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.9% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Worthington Steel shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.6% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies are held by company 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.

Dividends

Worthington Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Worthington Steel pays out -104.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies pay a dividend yield of 10.0% and pay out 10.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Worthington Steel and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Worthington Steel	1	1	1	0	2.00
Worthington Steel Competitors	6414	22620	32329	1801	2.47

Worthington Steel currently has a consensus target price of $46.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.12%. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies have a potential upside of 24.40%. Given Worthington Steel’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Worthington Steel has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Worthington Steel and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Worthington Steel	$3.44 billion	$8.50 million	-64.39
Worthington Steel Competitors	$4.78 billion	$278.94 million	-26.11

Worthington Steel’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Worthington Steel. Worthington Steel 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 Worthington Steel and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Worthington Steel	-0.56%	7.49%	3.14%
Worthington Steel Competitors	-1,161,736,352,322,426,600.00%	-52.87%	-2.06%

Risk and Volatility

Worthington Steel has a beta of 2.12, indicating that its share price is 112% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Worthington Steel’s peers have a beta of 0.96, indicating that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Worthington Steel peers beat Worthington Steel on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Worthington Steel

Worthington Steel, Inc. is a steel processor that buys flat-rolled steel and prepares it to meet customers’ specifications. Its services include slitting, cutting to length, blanking and other processing, as well as the production of tailor-welded blanks and electrical steel laminations. The company serves customers in industries including automotive, construction, agriculture, energy and electrical manufacturing. Its operations and customer base span North America and Europe. Worthington Steel became an independent, publicly traded company in December 2023 through the separation of Worthington Industries’ steel processing business.