Reviewing Mesabi Trust (NYSE:MSB) & Barrick Mining (NYSE:B)

Barrick Mining (NYSE:B) and Mesabi Trust (NYSE:MSB) are both materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Barrick Mining has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mesabi Trust has a beta of 0.32, suggesting that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Barrick Mining and Mesabi Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barrick Mining	$20.66 billion	3.06	$4.99 billion	$3.88	9.96
Mesabi Trust	$11.21 million	22.55	$13.87 million	$0.49	39.32

Barrick Mining has higher revenue and earnings than Mesabi Trust. Barrick Mining is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mesabi Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Barrick Mining and Mesabi Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barrick Mining	0	6	15	1	2.77
Mesabi Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

Barrick Mining presently has a consensus target price of $52.59, indicating a potential upside of 36.09%. Given Barrick Mining’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Barrick Mining is more favorable than Mesabi Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Barrick Mining and Mesabi Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barrick Mining	31.60%	16.02%	11.22%
Mesabi Trust	54.46%	33.50%	28.16%

Dividends

Barrick Mining pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Mesabi Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Barrick Mining pays out 18.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mesabi Trust pays out 40.8% 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. Barrick Mining is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.8% of Barrick Mining shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.2% of Barrick Mining shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Mesabi Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Barrick Mining beats Mesabi Trust on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barrick Mining

Barrick Gold Corporation is a sector-leading gold and copper producer.  Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GOLD and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ABX.
 
In January 2019 Barrick merged with Randgold Resources and in July that year it combined its gold mines in Nevada, USA, with those of Newmont Corporation in a joint venture, Nevada Gold Mines, which is majority-owned and operated by Barrick. Nevada Gold Mines is the world’s largest gold mining complex.  Barrick owns and operates six Tier One gold mines:  Cortez, Carlin and Turquoise Ridge in Nevada, Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali, Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic.
 
It has gold and copper mines and projects in 13 countries in North and South America, Africa, Papua New Guinea and Saudi Arabia. Barrick’s diversified portfolio spans the world’s most prolific gold districts and is focused on high-margin, long life assets.

About Mesabi Trust

Mesabi Trust, a royalty trust, engages in iron ore mining business in the United States. Mesabi Trust was founded in 1961 and is based in New York, New York.