Analyzing Ryerson (RYZ) & Its Peers

Ryerson (NYSE:RYZ) is one of 158 public companies in the “Trading Companies & Distributors” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Ryerson to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Ryerson and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ryerson	-0.56%	-0.62%	-0.21%
Ryerson Competitors	0.71%	-34.48%	3.15%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ryerson and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ryerson	$5.84 billion	-$56.40 million	-19.77
Ryerson Competitors	$6.50 billion	$365.60 million	21.25

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

Risk & Volatility

Ryerson has a beta of 1.65, suggesting that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ryerson’s rivals have a beta of 1.29, suggesting that their average stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Ryerson pays an annual dividend of $0.75 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Ryerson pays out -60.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.9% and pay out 36.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Ryerson is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.8% of Ryerson shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.9% of shares of all “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies are held by institutional investors. 6.6% of Ryerson shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.1% of shares of all “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Ryerson and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ryerson	2	1	0	0	1.33
Ryerson Competitors	1413	4864	6656	219	2.43

As a group, “Trading Companies & Distributors” companies have a potential upside of 10.32%. Given Ryerson’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ryerson has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Summary

Ryerson rivals beat Ryerson on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

About Ryerson

Ryerson Holding Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, processes and distributes industrial metals in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China. It offers a line of products in carbon steel, stainless steel, alloy steels, and aluminum, as well as nickel and red metals in various shapes and forms, including coils, sheets, rounds, hexagons, square and flat bars, plates, structural, and tubing. The company also provides various processing services, such as bending, beveling, blanking, blasting, burning, cutting-to-length, drilling, embossing, flattening, forming, grinding, laser cutting, machining, notching, painting, perforating, polishing, punching, rolling, sawing, scribing, shearing, slitting, stamping, tapping, threading, welding, or other techniques to process materials. It serves various industries, including commercial ground transportation, metal fabrication and machine shops, industrial machinery and equipment manufacturing, consumer durable equipment, HVAC manufacturing, construction equipment manufacturing, food processing and agricultural equipment manufacturing, and oil and gas. The company was founded in 1842 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.