Financial Comparison: Boise Cascade (NYSE:BCC) and Mitsui & Co. (OTCMKTS:MITSY)

Mitsui & Co. (OTCMKTS:MITSY) and Boise Cascade (NYSE:BCC) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.2% of Boise Cascade shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Mitsui & Co. shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Boise Cascade shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Mitsui & Co. and Boise Cascade, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mitsui & Co.	0	1	0	0	2.00
Boise Cascade	1	3	3	0	2.29

Boise Cascade has a consensus target price of $93.60, indicating a potential upside of 24.75%. Given Boise Cascade’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Boise Cascade is more favorable than Mitsui & Co..

Dividends

Mitsui & Co. pays an annual dividend of $11.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Boise Cascade pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Mitsui & Co. pays out 28.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Boise Cascade pays out 31.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Boise Cascade has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Mitsui & Co. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Mitsui & Co. has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Boise Cascade has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Mitsui & Co. and Boise Cascade”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mitsui & Co.	$92.97 billion	0.97	$5.21 billion	$42.41	14.86
Boise Cascade	$6.40 billion	0.41	$132.84 million	$2.95	25.43

Mitsui & Co. has higher revenue and earnings than Boise Cascade. Mitsui & Co. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Boise Cascade, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Mitsui & Co. and Boise Cascade’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mitsui & Co.	6.22%	10.67%	4.76%
Boise Cascade	1.64%	5.41%	3.34%

Summary

Mitsui & Co. beats Boise Cascade on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mitsui & Co.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd. operates as an trading and investment company worldwide. The company engages in the manufacture and sale of steel products; steel processing, maintenance, and recycling activities; investment, development, and trading of mineral and metal resources, as well as resource recycling and industrial developing solutions; and upstream development, logistics, and trading of energy resources, such as natural gas/LNG, oil, coal, and uranium. It also offers power, gas, water, rail, and logistics systems; sales, financing, lease, transportation, and logistics services; and invests in plants, offshore energy development, ships, aviation, space, railways, and automotives, as well as machinery for mining, construction, and industrial use. In addition, the company provides basic chemicals and inorganic raw materials, functional materials, electronic materials, specialty chemicals, housing and lifestyle materials, agri-inputs, animal/human nutrition, and health products; and logistics infrastructures services, including tank terminal operation, as well as plastic recycling and next-generation energy, such as hydrogen and ammonia and forest resources businesses. Further, it engages in the food resources and products, merchandising, retail, fashion and textiles, wellness, healthcare, pharma, hospitality, and human capital businesses. Additionally, it is involved in the ICT, finance, real estate, and logistics businesses. The company was incorporated in 1947 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Mitsui E&P Italia B operates as a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

About Boise Cascade

Boise Cascade Company engages in manufacture of wood products and distribution of building materials in the United States and Canada. It operates through two segments, Wood Products and Building Materials Distribution. The Wood Products segment manufactures laminated veneer lumber and laminated beams used in headers and beams; I-joists for residential and commercial flooring and roofing systems, and other structural applications; structural, appearance, and industrial plywood panels; and ponderosa pine shop lumber and appearance grade boards. The Building Materials Distribution segment distributes a line of building materials, including oriented strand boards, plywood, and lumber; general line items, such as siding, composite decking, doors, metal products, insulation, and roofing; and engineered wood products. It markets and sells its products to dealers, home improvement centers, wholesalers, specialty distributors, and industrial converters for use in the construction of new residential housing, repair-and-remodeling of existing housing, construction of light industrial and commercial buildings, and other industrial applications. Boise Cascade Company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.