Head to Head Analysis: Orbia Advance (OTCMKTS:MXCHY) vs. Ecolab (NYSE:ECL)

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) and Orbia Advance (OTCMKTS:MXCHY) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Ecolab and Orbia Advance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ecolab	12.49%	22.55%	8.98%
Orbia Advance	2.21%	7.87%	2.14%

Volatility and Risk

Ecolab has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Orbia Advance has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Ecolab pays an annual dividend of $2.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Orbia Advance pays an annual dividend of $0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Ecolab pays out 42.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ecolab has increased its dividend for 33 consecutive years.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

74.9% of Ecolab shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Ecolab shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ecolab and Orbia Advance”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ecolab	$15.74 billion	4.74	$2.11 billion	$6.96	37.85
Orbia Advance	$7.51 billion	0.23	$145.00 million	N/A	N/A

Ecolab has higher revenue and earnings than Orbia Advance.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Ecolab and Orbia Advance, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ecolab	0	5	13	3	2.90
Orbia Advance	0	0	2	0	3.00

Ecolab presently has a consensus price target of $294.57, suggesting a potential upside of 11.81%. Given Ecolab’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Ecolab is more favorable than Orbia Advance.

Summary

Ecolab beats Orbia Advance on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ecolab

Ecolab Inc. provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries. Its Global Institutional & Specialty segment provides specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the foodservice, hospitality, lodging, government and education, and retail industries. The Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segment offers specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the healthcare, personal care, and pharmaceutical industries, such as infection prevention and surgical solutions, and end-to-end cleaning and contamination control solutions under the Ecolab, Microtek, and Anios brand names. In addition, the company provides pest elimination services to detect, eliminate, and prevent pests, such as rodents and insects in restaurants, food and beverage processors, hotels, grocery operations, and other commercial segments including education, life sciences, and healthcare customers. Further, it offers colloidal silica for binding and polishing applications in semiconductor, catalyst, and aerospace component manufacturing, as well as chemical industries; and products and services that manage wash process through custom designed programs, premium products, dispensing equipment, water and energy management, and reduction, as well as real time data management. It sells its products through field sales and corporate account personnel, distributors, and dealers. Ecolab Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

About Orbia Advance

Orbia Advance Corporation, S.A.B. de C.V. provides products and solutions for precision agriculture, building and infrastructure, fluorinated, polymer, and connectivity sectors worldwide. The company offers irrigation systems, agricultural and greenhouse projects, digital farming technologies, and related services; and connectivity solutions, including conduits, cable-in conduit, and other HDPE products and solutions. It also provides water delivering solutions for drinking water supply, sanitation, and urban water resilience; fluorine and downstream products, comprising fluorspar mine and produces intermediates, refrigerants, and propellants for used in automotive, infrastructure, semiconductor, health, medicine, climate control, food cold chain, energy storage, computing, and telecommunications applications; and general and specialty resins, PVC, and compounds and additives for stabilizers and plasticizers, as well as compounds formulated from polyolefin, thermoplastic polyurethane, and thermoplastic elastomer polymers for various applications. The company was formerly known as Mexichem, S.A.B. de C.V. and changed its name to Orbia Advance Corporation, S.A.B. de C.V. in August 2019. Orbia Advance Corporation, S.A.B. de C.V. was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.