Comparing Searchlight Minerals (OTCMKTS:SRCH) & Hudbay Minerals (NYSE:HBM)

Searchlight Minerals (OTCMKTS:SRCH) and Hudbay Minerals (NYSE:HBM) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Searchlight Minerals and Hudbay Minerals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Searchlight Minerals	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hudbay Minerals	4.23%	7.44%	3.34%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

57.8% of Hudbay Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Hudbay Minerals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Searchlight Minerals has a beta of 0.25, meaning that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hudbay Minerals has a beta of 1.78, meaning that its stock price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Searchlight Minerals and Hudbay Minerals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Searchlight Minerals	0	0	0	0	0.00
Hudbay Minerals	0	0	4	2	3.33

Hudbay Minerals has a consensus target price of $11.17, suggesting a potential upside of 23.53%. Given Hudbay Minerals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Hudbay Minerals is more favorable than Searchlight Minerals.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Searchlight Minerals and Hudbay Minerals”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Searchlight Minerals	N/A	N/A	-$2.28 million	N/A	N/A
Hudbay Minerals	$2.04 billion	1.75	$66.37 million	$0.23	39.30

Hudbay Minerals has higher revenue and earnings than Searchlight Minerals.

Summary

Hudbay Minerals beats Searchlight Minerals on 12 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Searchlight Minerals

Searchlight Minerals Corp., an exploration stage company, engages in a slag reprocessing project; and the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in the United States. It holds interests in the Clarkdale slag project, located in Clarkdale, Arizona, which is a reclamation project to recover precious and base metals from the reprocessing of slag produced from the smelting of copper ore mined at the United Verde Copper Mine in Jerome, Arizona. The company was formerly known as Phage Genomics, Inc and changed its name to Searchlight Minerals Corp. in June 2005. Searchlight Minerals Corp. was founded in 1999 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.

About Hudbay Minerals

Hudbay Minerals Inc., a diversified mining company, focuses on the exploration, development, operation, and optimization of properties in North and South America. It produces copper concentrates containing gold, silver, and molybdenum; gold concentrates containing zinc; zinc concentrates; molybdenum concentrates; and silver/gold doré. The company's flagship project is the 100% owned Constancia mine located in the Province of Chumbivilcas in southern Peru. Hudbay Minerals Inc. was founded in 1927 and is based in Toronto, Canada.