Critical Review: Lithium Americas (Argentina) (NYSE:LAAC) & Centamin (OTCMKTS:CELTF)

Lithium Americas (Argentina) (NYSE:LAAC) and Centamin (OTCMKTS:CELTF) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Lithium Americas (Argentina) and Centamin, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	0	0	2	1	3.33
Centamin	0	0	0	0	0.00

Lithium Americas (Argentina) currently has a consensus target price of $4.25, suggesting a potential upside of 111.44%. Given Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Lithium Americas (Argentina) is more favorable than Centamin.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

49.2% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.8% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lithium Americas (Argentina) and Centamin”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	N/A	$1.29 billion	$7.79	0.26
Centamin	$891.26 million	2.45	$92.28 million	N/A	N/A

Lithium Americas (Argentina) has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Centamin.

Risk & Volatility

Lithium Americas (Argentina) has a beta of 1.35, meaning that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Centamin has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lithium Americas (Argentina) and Centamin’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	-1.37%	-1.08%
Centamin	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Lithium Americas (Argentina) beats Centamin on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lithium Americas (Argentina)

Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. operates as a resource company. The company explores for lithium deposits. The company owns interests in the Cauchari-Olaroz project located in Jujuy province of Argentina. It also has a pipeline of development and exploration stage projects, including the Pastos Grandes project and the Sal de la Puna project located in Salta Province in northwestern Argentina. Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Centamin

Centamin plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, mining, and development of gold and precious metals in Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Jersey, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Its principal asset is the Sukari Gold Mine project, which covers an area of approximately 160 square kilometers located in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Saint Helier, Jersey.