Head-To-Head Contrast: OCI (OTCMKTS:OCINF) and Albemarle (NYSE:ALB)

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and OCI (OTCMKTS:OCINF) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Albemarle and OCI, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Albemarle	1	15	7	0	2.26
OCI	0	0	0	0	N/A

Albemarle currently has a consensus price target of $117.60, suggesting a potential upside of 25.16%. Given Albemarle’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Albemarle is more favorable than OCI.

Profitability

This table compares Albemarle and OCI’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Albemarle	-6.72%	6.38%	3.31%
OCI	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Albemarle and OCI”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle	$7.46 billion	1.48	$1.57 billion	$2.75	34.17
OCI	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Albemarle has higher revenue and earnings than OCI.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.9% of Albemarle shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.8% of OCI shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Albemarle shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Albemarle beats OCI on 7 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Specialties segment provides bromine-based specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals; lithium specialties, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride; develops and manufactures cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators. The Ketjen segment offers clean fuels technologies (CFT), which is composed of hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) together with isomerization and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives; and performance catalyst solutions (PCS), which is composed of organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About OCI

OCI N.V. produces and distributes hydrogen-based and natural gas-based products to agricultural, transportation, and industrial customers. It operates through Methanol US, Methanol Europe, and Nitrogen Europe segments. The company offers anhydrous ammonia, granular urea, urea ammonium nitrate solution, calcium ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulphate, ammonium nitrate + sulphur, renewable and lower carbon ammonia, nitric acid, bio-methanol, methanol, melamine, carbon dioxide, and diesel exhaust fluid, as well as other nitrogen products. It also provides storage and shipment services for ammonia at the port of Rotterdam. The company has operations in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. OCI N.V. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.