Comparing Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT) & Linde (NASDAQ:LIN)

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) and Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Linde has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ingevity has a beta of 1.45, indicating that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Linde and Ingevity”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Linde	$33.50 billion	5.97	$6.57 billion	$14.93	28.71
Ingevity	$1.38 billion	1.33	-$430.30 million	($1.82)	-27.78

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.8% of Linde shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ingevity shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Linde shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Ingevity shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Linde and Ingevity, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Linde	0	2	6	2	3.00
Ingevity	1	1	1	0	2.00

Linde presently has a consensus price target of $508.83, suggesting a potential upside of 18.71%. Ingevity has a consensus price target of $61.50, suggesting a potential upside of 21.63%. Given Ingevity’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ingevity is more favorable than Linde.

Profitability

This table compares Linde and Ingevity’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Linde	20.20%	19.09%	9.19%
Ingevity	-16.35%	84.92%	7.95%

Summary

Linde beats Ingevity on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Linde

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene. The company also designs and constructs turnkey process plants for third-party customers, as well as for the gas businesses in various locations, such as air separation, hydrogen, synthesis, olefin, and natural gas plants. It serves a range of industries, including healthcare, chemicals and energy, manufacturing, metals and mining, food and beverage, and electronics. The company was founded in 1879 and is based in Woking, the United Kingdom.

About Ingevity

Ingevity Corporation manufactures and sells activated carbon products, derivative specialty chemicals, and engineered polymers in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. It operates through three segments: Performance Materials, Performance Chemicals, and Advanced Polymer Technologies. The Performance Materials segment engineers, manufactures, and sells hardwood-based and chemically activated carbon products for use in gasoline vapor emission control systems in cars, motorcycles, trucks, and boats. This segment also produces other activated carbon products for food, water, beverage, and chemical purification applications. The Performance Chemicals segment consists of road technologies and industrial specialties. This segment's products are used in pavement construction, pavement preservation, pavement reconstruction and recycling, road markings, agrochemical dispersants, paper chemicals, and other industrial uses. The Advanced Polymer Technologies segment produces caprolactone and caprolactone-based specialty polymers for use in coatings, resins, elastomers, adhesives, bioplastics, and medical devices. It serves automotive parts and components manufacturers through sales representatives and distributors. The company was formerly known as WestRock Company, Specialty Chemicals Business and changed its name to Ingevity Corporation in September 2015. Ingevity Corporation was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in North Charleston, South Carolina.