Contrasting United States Lime & Minerals (NASDAQ:USLM) & Energy Fuels (NYSE:UUUU)

United States Lime & Minerals (NASDAQ:USLM) and Energy Fuels (NYSE:UUUU) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for United States Lime & Minerals and Energy Fuels, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United States Lime & Minerals	0	0	0	0	N/A
Energy Fuels	0	2	2	0	2.50

Energy Fuels has a consensus price target of $8.67, indicating a potential upside of 60.49%. Given Energy Fuels’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Energy Fuels is more favorable than United States Lime & Minerals.

Volatility and Risk

United States Lime & Minerals has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Energy Fuels has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

27.1% of United States Lime & Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.2% of Energy Fuels shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of United States Lime & Minerals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Energy Fuels shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares United States Lime & Minerals and Energy Fuels’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United States Lime & Minerals	29.87%	21.21%	19.03%
Energy Fuels	-27.23%	-6.56%	-6.24%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares United States Lime & Minerals and Energy Fuels”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United States Lime & Minerals	$288.80 million	1.93	$74.55 million	$13.98	6.98
Energy Fuels	$45.60 million	19.10	$99.86 million	($0.07)	-77.14

Energy Fuels has lower revenue, but higher earnings than United States Lime & Minerals. Energy Fuels is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United States Lime & Minerals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

United States Lime & Minerals beats Energy Fuels on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United States Lime & Minerals

United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. manufactures and supplies lime and limestone products in the United States. It extracts limestone from open-pit quarries and an underground mine, and processes it as pulverized limestone, quicklime, hydrated lime, and lime slurry. The company supplies its products primarily to the construction customers, including highway, road, and building contractors; industrial customers, such as paper and glass manufacturers; environmental customers comprising municipal sanitation and water treatment facilities, and flue gas treatment processes; oil and gas services companies; roof shingle manufacturers; and poultry producers. In addition, it has various royalty interests with respect to oil and gas rights in natural gas wells located in Johnson County, Texas in the Barnett Shale Formation. The company was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Inberdon Enterprises Ltd.

About Energy Fuels

Energy Fuels Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the extraction, recovery, recycling, exploration, permitting, evaluation, and sale of uranium mineral properties in the United States. The company produces and sells vanadium pentoxide, rare earth elements, and heavy mineral sands, such as ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and monazite. The company was formerly known as Volcanic Metals Exploration Inc. and changed its name to Energy Fuels Inc. in May 2006. Energy Fuels Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado.