Head-To-Head Contrast: Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) & AdvanSix (NYSE:ASIX)

AdvanSix (NYSE:ASIX) and Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) are both materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.4% of AdvanSix shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.1% of Nutrien shares are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of AdvanSix shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Nutrien shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AdvanSix	$1.52 billion	0.30	$49.29 million	($0.66)	-25.33
Nutrien	$26.89 billion	1.26	$2.27 billion	$4.58	15.58

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for AdvanSix and Nutrien, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AdvanSix	1	2	0	0	1.67
Nutrien	1	6	16	0	2.65

AdvanSix currently has a consensus target price of $21.50, suggesting a potential upside of 28.60%. Nutrien has a consensus target price of $79.24, suggesting a potential upside of 11.04%. Given AdvanSix’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe AdvanSix is more favorable than Nutrien.

Risk and Volatility

AdvanSix has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nutrien has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

AdvanSix pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Nutrien pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. AdvanSix pays out -97.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nutrien pays out 48.0% 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. AdvanSix has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Nutrien has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years. AdvanSix is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares AdvanSix and Nutrien’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AdvanSix	-1.40%	-2.29%	-1.08%
Nutrien	7.78%	8.00%	3.85%

Summary

Nutrien beats AdvanSix on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AdvanSix

AdvanSix Inc. engages in the manufacture and sale of polymer resins in the United States and internationally. It offers Nylon 6, a polymer resin, which is a synthetic material used to produce fibers, filaments, engineered plastics, and films. The company also provides caprolactam to manufacture polymer resins; ammonium sulfate fertilizers to distributors, farm cooperatives, and retailers; and acetone that are used in the production of adhesives, paints, coatings, solvents, herbicides, and engineered plastic resins, as well as other intermediate chemicals, including phenol, monoisopropylamine, dipropylamine, monoallylamine, alpha-methylstyrene, cyclohexanone, methyl ethyl ketoxime, acetaldehyde oxime, 2-pentanone oxime, cyclohexanol, sulfuric acid, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. It offers its products under the Aegis, Capran, Sulf-N, Nadone, Naxol, and EZ-Blox brands. The company sells its products directly, as well as through distributors. AdvanSix Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.

About Nutrien

Nutrien Ltd. provides crop inputs and services. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphate. The Retail segment distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, and merchandise products. The Potash segment provides granular and standard potash products. The Nitrogen segment offers ammonia, urea, environmentally smart nitrogen, nitrogen solutions, nitrates, and sulfates. The Phosphate segment provides solid fertilizer, liquid fertilizer, and industrial and feed products. In addition, it provides services directly to growers through a network of farm centers in North America, South America, and Australia. The company is headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada.