Gatos Silver (NYSE:GATO) & Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Head to Head Comparison

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) and Gatos Silver (NYSE:GATO) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Pan American Silver has a beta of 1.35, meaning that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gatos Silver has a beta of 2.1, meaning that its share price is 110% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Pan American Silver and Gatos Silver, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pan American Silver	0	1	5	0	2.83
Gatos Silver	0	2	2	1	2.80

Pan American Silver presently has a consensus price target of $24.93, indicating a potential upside of 2.12%. Gatos Silver has a consensus price target of $12.90, indicating a potential downside of 30.16%. Given Pan American Silver’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Pan American Silver is more favorable than Gatos Silver.

Profitability

This table compares Pan American Silver and Gatos Silver’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pan American Silver	-5.54%	0.66%	0.44%
Gatos Silver	N/A	7.41%	7.03%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

55.4% of Pan American Silver shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.8% of Gatos Silver shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.9% of Pan American Silver shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Gatos Silver shares are owned 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pan American Silver and Gatos Silver”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pan American Silver	$2.57 billion	3.44	-$103.70 million	($0.46)	-53.07
Gatos Silver	N/A	N/A	$12.86 million	$0.22	83.95

Gatos Silver has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Pan American Silver. Pan American Silver is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Gatos Silver, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Gatos Silver beats Pan American Silver on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pan American Silver

Pan American Silver Corp. engages in the exploration, mine development, extraction, processing, refining, and reclamation of silver, gold, zinc, lead, and copper mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The company was formerly known as Pan American Minerals Corp. and changed its name to Pan American Silver Corp. in April 1995. Pan American Silver Corp. was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Gatos Silver

Gatos Silver, Inc. engages in the exploration, development, and production of precious metals. It primarily explores for silver deposits. The company also explores for zinc, lead, copper, and gold ores. Its flagship asset is the Los Gatos District, including the Cerro Los Gatos mine in Chihuahua, Mexico. The company was formerly known as Sunshine Silver Mining & Refining Corporation and changed its name to Gatos Silver, Inc. in October 2020. Gatos Silver, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.