Financial Survey: FutureFuel (FF) vs. Its Rivals

FutureFuel (NYSE:FF) is one of 1,051 publicly-traded companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare FutureFuel to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

44.6% of FutureFuel shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by institutional investors. 42.6% of FutureFuel shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.3% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for FutureFuel and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FutureFuel	1	0	0	0	1.00
FutureFuel Competitors	5970	26964	40816	2413	2.52

As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 27.88%. Given FutureFuel’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe FutureFuel has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares FutureFuel and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
FutureFuel	$95.74 million	-$49.40 million	-7.74
FutureFuel Competitors	$14.85 billion	$5.51 billion	-0.00

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

Profitability

This table compares FutureFuel and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FutureFuel	-19.94%	-19.75%	-15.47%
FutureFuel Competitors	-470.80%	19.34%	6.40%

Volatility & Risk

FutureFuel has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FutureFuel’s competitors have a beta of -3.76, meaning that their average share price is 476% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

FutureFuel pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. FutureFuel pays out -5.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.1% and pay out -122.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. FutureFuel lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

FutureFuel competitors beat FutureFuel on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

FutureFuel Company Profile

FutureFuel Corp., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells diversified chemical, bio-based fuel, and bio-based specialty chemical products in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Chemicals and Biofuels. The Chemicals segment provides various custom chemicals that are used in the coatings, chemical intermediates, industrial and consumer cleaning, oil and gas, and specialty polymers industries; and performance chemicals, such as polymer modifiers, glycerin products, and various specialty chemicals and solvents. The Biofuels segment is involved in the production and sale of biodiesel and petrodiesel blends; and markets its biodiesel products directly to customers through trucks, barges, and rail cars. FutureFuel Corp. is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.