Comparing Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT) & Mativ (NYSE:MATV)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Ingevity and Mativ, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ingevity	1	2	2	0	2.20
Mativ	1	1	0	0	1.50

Ingevity currently has a consensus target price of $80.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.10%. Given Ingevity’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ingevity is more favorable than Mativ.

Volatility and Risk

Ingevity has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mativ has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ingevity and Mativ”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ingevity	$1.17 billion	2.30	-$167.10 million	($4.65)	-16.37
Mativ	$1.99 billion	0.27	-$337.40 million	($6.26)	-1.57

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

91.6% of Ingevity shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of Mativ shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Ingevity shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Mativ shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ingevity	-13.51%	126.25%	8.90%
Mativ	-16.98%	9.79%	2.08%

Summary

Ingevity beats Mativ on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Mativ

Mativ Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells specialty materials in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, the Americas, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Technical Materials and Fiber-Based Solutions. The Advanced Technical Materials manufactures and sells various engineered polymer, resin and fiber-based substrates, nets, films, adhesive tapes, and other nonwovens for the filtration, protective solutions, release liners, and healthcare end-markets. This segment sells its products directly, as well as through sales agents and distributors. The Fiber-Based Solutions segment produces packaging and specialty paper products. This segment provides premium packaging products that are used for wine, spirits and beer labels, folding cartons, box wrap, bags, hang tags, and stored value cards servicing retail, cosmetics, spirits, and electronics end-use markets; and premium papers, which are used in commercial printing services, advertising collateral, stationery, corporate identity packages and brochures, direct mail, business cards, and other uses. It also offers branded paper-based products for the consumer channel, such as bright papers, cardstock, stationery paper, envelopes, journals, and planners. This segment distributes its products through authorized paper distributors, converters, retailers, and specialty business converters, as well as directly to end-users. The company was formerly known as Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. and changed its name to Mativ Holdings, Inc. in July 2022. Mativ Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.