Reviewing Westaim (OTCMKTS:WEDXF) & Orion (NYSE:OEC)

Orion (NYSE:OEC) and Westaim (OTCMKTS:WEDXF) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Orion and Westaim, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Orion	4	1	0	0	1.20
Westaim	0	0	0	0	0.00

Orion currently has a consensus target price of $5.58, indicating a potential downside of 13.96%. Given Orion’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Orion is more favorable than Westaim.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.3% of Orion shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of Orion shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of Westaim shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Orion and Westaim”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Orion	$1.81 billion	0.20	-$70.10 million	($1.26)	-5.15
Westaim	$53.37 million	10.69	-$38.00 million	($1.26)	-13.56

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

Profitability

This table compares Orion and Westaim’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Orion	-3.88%	6.52%	1.42%
Westaim	-77.37%	-6.15%	-5.25%

Risk and Volatility

Orion has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Westaim has a beta of 0.2, indicating that its share price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Orion beats Westaim on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Orion

Orion S.A., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of carbon black products. It operates in two segments, Specialty Carbon Black and Rubber Carbon Black. The company offers post-treated specialty carbon black grades for coatings and printing applications; high purity carbon black grades for the fiber industry; and conductive carbon black grades for batteries, polymers, and coatings. It also provides rubber carbon black products for applications in mechanical rubber goods, as well as in tires under the ECORAX brand name; and acetylene-based conductive additives for lithium-ion batteries and other applications. It operates in the United States, Brazil, rest of the Americas, Germany, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Turkey, France, Rest of EMEA, China, the Republic of Korea, and rest of Asia. The company was formerly known as Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. and changed its name to Orion S.A. in June 2023. Orion S.A. was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in Senningerberg, Luxembourg.

About Westaim

The Westaim Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in direct and indirect investments through acquisitions, joint ventures, secondary investments both direct and indirect, fund of fund investments, and other arrangements. For direct investments, the firm invests in early venture, mid venture, late venture, middle market, later stage, mature, emerging growth, PIPEs, and buyout transactions. For fund of fund investments, it seeks to invest in private equity funds, venture capital funds, and hedge funds. The firm seeks to provide long term capital to businesses operating in the global financial services industry. It typically acquires controlling interests in businesses. The firm seeks to acquire debt, equity, or derivative securities of both public and private companies. It invests with the objective of providing its shareholders with capital appreciation and real wealth preservation. The firm seeks to provide its portfolio companies with advisory services including, but not limited to, advice on capital allocation, financing strategy, performance measurement and merger and acquisition support. It also seeks to partner with like-minded providers of third party capital to help supplement the firm's own capital, when completing acquisitions. The firm generally seeks to hold its investments for seven to 15 years. The Westaim Corporation was founded in 1996 and is based in Toronto, Canada.