Critical Contrast: Standard Lithium (SLI) versus Its Rivals

Standard Lithium (NYSE:SLI) is one of 33 publicly-traded companies in the “Chemicals & allied products” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Standard Lithium to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Standard Lithium and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Standard Lithium	N/A	-15.67%	-14.05%
Standard Lithium Competitors	-747.67%	3.75%	-0.80%

Dividends

Standard Lithium pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 79.8%. Standard Lithium pays out 344.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Chemicals & allied products” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.9% and pay out 41.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Standard Lithium and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Standard Lithium	0	0	1	0	3.00
Standard Lithium Competitors	139	1293	1598	46	2.50

Standard Lithium currently has a consensus price target of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 39.72%. As a group, “Chemicals & allied products” companies have a potential upside of 12.83%. Given Standard Lithium’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Standard Lithium is more favorable than its peers.

Risk and Volatility

Standard Lithium has a beta of 1.89, suggesting that its share price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Standard Lithium’s peers have a beta of 1.83, suggesting that their average share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

16.8% of Standard Lithium shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.5% of shares of all “Chemicals & allied products” companies are held by institutional investors. 9.8% of shares of all “Chemicals & allied products” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Standard Lithium and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Standard Lithium	N/A	$108.82 million	4.32
Standard Lithium Competitors	$6.87 billion	$214.06 million	67.40

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

Summary

Standard Lithium peers beat Standard Lithium on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Standard Lithium Company Profile

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.