Critical Survey: Standard Lithium (NYSE:SLI) & Loop Industries (NASDAQ:LOOP)

Loop Industries (NASDAQ:LOOP) and Standard Lithium (NYSE:SLI) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

4.9% of Loop Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.8% of Standard Lithium shares are held by institutional investors. 49.8% of Loop Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Standard Lithium shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Loop Industries and Standard Lithium, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Loop Industries	0	0	0	0	N/A
Standard Lithium	0	0	1	0	3.00

Standard Lithium has a consensus price target of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 81.82%. Given Standard Lithium’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Standard Lithium is more favorable than Loop Industries.

Volatility & Risk

Loop Industries has a beta of 1.48, indicating that its share price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Standard Lithium has a beta of 1.89, indicating that its share price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Loop Industries and Standard Lithium”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Loop Industries	$132,000.00	576.23	-$21.09 million	($0.44)	-3.64
Standard Lithium	N/A	N/A	$108.82 million	($0.23)	-8.37

Standard Lithium has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Loop Industries. Standard Lithium is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Loop Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Loop Industries and Standard Lithium’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Loop Industries	-14,713.74%	-118.35%	-82.70%
Standard Lithium	N/A	-15.67%	-14.05%

Summary

Standard Lithium beats Loop Industries on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Loop Industries

Loop Industries, Inc., a technology company, focuses on depolymerizing waste polyethylene terephthalate PET plastics and polyester fibers, including plastic bottles, packaging, carpets and textiles of any color, transparency and even ocean plastics that have been degraded by the sun and salt, to its base building blocks. Its polymerized monomers into virgin-quality PET resins for use in food-grade plastic packaging, such as plastic bottles for water and carbonated soft drinks, and containers for food and other consumer products; and polyester fibers, including textiles, clothing, and apparel. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is based in Terrebonne, Canada.

About Standard Lithium

Standard Lithium Ltd. explores for, develops, and processes lithium brine properties in the United States. Its flagship project is the Lanxess project with area of approximately 150,000 acres located in southern Arkansas. The company was formerly known as Patriot Petroleum Corp. and changed its name to Standard Lithium Ltd. in December 2016. Standard Lithium Ltd. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.