Critical Comparison: JFE (JFEEF) versus Its Peers

Volatility & Risk

JFE has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, JFE’s competitors have a beta of 1.26, suggesting that their average share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares JFE and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JFE	1.88%	3.56%	1.61%
JFE Competitors	2.01%	0.96%	1.37%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

54.8% of shares of all “STEEL – PRODUCERS” companies are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of shares of all “STEEL – PRODUCERS” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares JFE and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
JFE	$31.91 billion	$606.33 million	12.53
JFE Competitors	$2,932.19 billion	$280.11 million	21.31

JFE’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than JFE. JFE is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

JFE competitors beat JFE on 6 of the 9 factors compared.

About JFE

JFE Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in steel, engineering, and trading businesses in Japan and internationally. Its Steel segment produces and sells various steel products, processed steel products, and raw materials, as well as operates in the transportation, facility maintenance, and construction businesses. The company's Engineering segment handles the engineering of energy, urban environment, steel structures and industrial machinery, recycling, and electricity retailing projects. Its Trading segment purchases, processes, and distributes steel products, raw materials for steel production, nonferrous metal products, food, etc. JFE Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.