General Steel (OTCMKTS:GSIH) & Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Head to Head Review

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) and General Steel (OTCMKTS:GSIH) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Steel Dynamics and General Steel, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Steel Dynamics	0	6	5	0	2.45
General Steel	0	0	0	0	0.00

Steel Dynamics presently has a consensus target price of $182.00, indicating a potential upside of 4.37%. Given Steel Dynamics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Steel Dynamics is more favorable than General Steel.

Volatility and Risk

Steel Dynamics has a beta of 1.48, meaning that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Steel has a beta of -1.15, meaning that its stock price is 215% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Steel Dynamics and General Steel”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Steel Dynamics	$18.18 billion	1.40	$1.54 billion	$7.55	23.10
General Steel	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Steel Dynamics has higher revenue and earnings than General Steel.

Profitability

This table compares Steel Dynamics and General Steel’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Steel Dynamics	6.52%	13.56%	7.43%
General Steel	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.4% of Steel Dynamics shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of Steel Dynamics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 53.3% of General Steel shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Steel Dynamics beats General Steel on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Steel Dynamics

Steel Dynamics, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer and metal recycler in the United States. The Steel Operations segment offers hot rolled, cold rolled, and coated steel products; parallel flange beams and channel sections, flat bars, large unequal leg angles, and reinforcing steel bars, as well as standard strength carbon, intermediate alloy hardness, and premium grade rail products; engineered special-bar-quality products, merchant-bar-quality products, and other engineered round steel bars; channels, angles, flats, merchant rounds, and reinforcing steel bars; and specialty shapes and light structural steel products. This segment also engages in turning, polishing, straightening, chamfering, precision saw-cutting, and heat treating of bar products. Its products are used in construction, automotive, manufacturing, transportation, heavy and agriculture equipment, and pipe and tube markets. The Metals Recycling Operations segment is involved in the ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal processing, transportation, marketing, brokerage, and scrap management services. Its ferrous products include heavy melting steel, busheling, bundled scrap, shredded scrap, steel turnings, and cast-iron products; and nonferrous products comprise aluminum, brass, copper, stainless steel, and other nonferrous metals. The Steel Fabrication Operations segment produces steel non-residential building components, such as steel joists, girders, trusses, and steel deck products for non-residential steel fabricators, metal building companies, general construction contractors, developers, owners, brokers, and governmental entities, as well as e-commerce warehouses, data centers, metal buildings, and education and commercial building projects. The Aluminum Operations segment offers recycled aluminum flat rolled products. The company also exports its products. Steel Dynamics, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

About General Steel

General Steel Holdings, Inc. engages in the business of cell research, development, storage, and cell culture service in the People's Republic of China. General Steel Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.