Head to Head Comparison: Worthington Steel (WS) and The Competition

Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) is one of 1,987 publicly-traded companies in the “Metals & Mining” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Worthington Steel to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and profitability.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Worthington Steel and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Worthington Steel	$3.44 billion	$8.50 million	23.42
Worthington Steel Competitors	$174.27 billion	$277.23 million	-32.48

Worthington Steel’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Worthington Steel. Worthington Steel is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Worthington Steel and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Worthington Steel	0	1	1	1	3.00
Worthington Steel Competitors	6303	22410	31976	1766	2.47

Worthington Steel currently has a consensus target price of $46.00, indicating a potential upside of 41.30%. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies have a potential upside of 14.40%. Given Worthington Steel’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Worthington Steel is more favorable than its competitors.

Risk & Volatility

Worthington Steel has a beta of 2.27, suggesting that its stock price is 127% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Worthington Steel’s competitors have a beta of 1.02, suggesting that their average stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

45.4% of Worthington Steel shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.9% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Worthington Steel shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.7% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Worthington Steel and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Worthington Steel	0.50%	8.87%	4.89%
Worthington Steel Competitors	-1,161,736,352,322,426,800.00%	-9.12%	-2.11%

Dividends

Worthington Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Worthington Steel pays out 46.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.3% and pay out 10.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Worthington Steel lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

Worthington Steel beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Worthington Steel Company Profile

Worthington Steel, Inc. operates as a steel processor in North America. It offers carbon flat-rolled steel and tailor welded blanks, as well as electrical steel laminations; and aluminum tailor welded blanks. The company serves various end-markets, including automotive, heavy truck, agriculture, construction, and energy. Worthington Steel, Inc. was incorporated in 2023 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.