Comparing UPM-Kymmene (OTCMKTS:UPMKY) and West Fraser Timber (OTCMKTS:WFTBF)

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares West Fraser Timber and UPM-Kymmene”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
West Fraser Timber	N/A	N/A	N/A	$3.84	18.41
UPM-Kymmene	$12.38 billion	1.14	$1.77 billion	$2.65	9.98

UPM-Kymmene has higher revenue and earnings than West Fraser Timber. UPM-Kymmene is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than West Fraser Timber, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares West Fraser Timber and UPM-Kymmene’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
West Fraser Timber	N/A	N/A	N/A
UPM-Kymmene	13.76%	12.57%	8.65%

Dividends

West Fraser Timber pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. UPM-Kymmene pays an annual dividend of $1.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. West Fraser Timber pays out 7.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UPM-Kymmene pays out 45.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

31.7% of West Fraser Timber shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.6% of UPM-Kymmene shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of UPM-Kymmene shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

UPM-Kymmene beats West Fraser Timber on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About West Fraser Timber

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd., a diversified wood products company, produces and sells lumber, panels, and pulp and papers in western Canada and the southern United States. It offers spruce-pine-fir, Douglas Fir-Larch, Hem-Fir tree, and southern yellow pine lumber; treated wood products; and newsprint, wood chips, and other residuals and energy products. The company also provides medium density fiberboard panels and plywood; laminated veneer lumber wood products; and northern bleached softwood Kraft pulp used to produce various paper products, including printing and writing papers, specialty grades, and various tissue products. In addition, it offers bleached chemical thermo-mechanical pulp that is used to produce coated board grades, printing and writing paper, and paper towel/napkin grades, as well as specialty papers and tissue grades. The company exports lumber to the Far East, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. was founded in 1955 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.

About UPM-Kymmene

UPM-Kymmene Oyj operates in the forest-based bio industry. It operates through UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Communication Papers, UPM Plywood, and Other operations segments. The company provides eucalyptus, birch, and softwood pulp grades for tissue, specialty and graphic papers, boards, and packaging; sawn timber for construction, packaging, distribution, joinery, and furniture industries; and wood-based renewable diesel and renewable naphtha for fuel distributors, transportation, and oil and petrochemicals industries. It is also involved in the generation of electricity through hydro, nuclear, and condensing power plants. In addition, the company offers self-adhesive papers and film label stocks for product and information labelling to label printers and brand owners in food, beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, and retail segments; label papers and release liners, fine papers, and flexible packaging, as well as label and packaging papers production lines for retailers, printers, publishers, distributors, and paper converters; and graphic papers for advertising, magazines, newspapers, and home and office to publishers, cataloguers, retailers, printers, and merchants. Further, it provides plywood and veneer products for construction, vehicle flooring, liquefied natural gas shipbuilding, and other manufacturing industries; wood and wood-based biomass, and forestry services for woodland and forest owners; outdoor products for construction, and granulates for injection molding and extrusion; wood-based lignin products for industrial use and cell culture hydrogel products for biomedical applications; and biomedical products. The company primarily operates in Europe, North America, and Asia. UPM-Kymmene Oyj was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland.