Critical Review: Ero Copper (NYSE:ERO) & BYD (OTCMKTS:BYDDF)

Ero Copper (NYSE:ERO) and BYD (OTCMKTS:BYDDF) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

Ero Copper has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BYD has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.3% of Ero Copper shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Ero Copper and BYD, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ero Copper	0	0	6	1	3.14
BYD	0	0	0	0	0.00

Ero Copper presently has a consensus price target of $30.00, indicating a potential upside of 81.05%. Given Ero Copper’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Ero Copper is more favorable than BYD.

Profitability

This table compares Ero Copper and BYD’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ero Copper	3.67%	10.54%	5.56%
BYD	5.21%	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ero Copper and BYD”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ero Copper	$427.48 million	4.00	$92.80 million	$0.17	97.47
BYD	$85.22 billion	N/A	$4.25 billion	$1.55	22.98

BYD has higher revenue and earnings than Ero Copper. BYD is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ero Copper, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ero Copper beats BYD on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ero Copper

Ero Copper Corp. engages in the exploration, development, and production of mining projects in Brazil. The company is involved in the production and sale of copper concentrate from the Caraíba operations located in the Curaçá Valley, northeastern Bahia state, Brazil, as well as gold and silver by-products. It also holds 100% interests in the Tucumã project, a copper development project located within southeastern Pará state; and the Xavantina Operations located in Mato Grosso state. Ero Copper Corp. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About BYD

BYD Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in automobiles and batteries business in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and internationally. The company operates in two segments: Mobile Handset Components, Assembly Service and Other Products; and Automobiles and Related Products and Other Products. The Mobile Handset Components, Assembly Service and Other Products segment manufactures and sells mobile handset components, such as housings and electronic components; and offers assembly services. The Automobiles and Related Products and Other Products segment is involved in the manufacturing and sale of automobiles, and auto-related molds and components; rail transport and related business; and provision of automobile leasing and after sales services, automobile power batteries, lithium-ion batteries, photovoltaic, and iron battery products. The company develops urban rail transportation business. BYD Company Limited was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China.