Reviewing Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) and Tredegar (NYSE:TG)

Tredegar (NYSE:TG) and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) are both materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Tredegar and Freeport-McMoRan, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tredegar	0	1	0	0	2.00
Freeport-McMoRan	0	4	20	1	2.88

Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus target price of $70.29, indicating a potential upside of 1.55%. Given Freeport-McMoRan’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Freeport-McMoRan is more favorable than Tredegar.

Risk and Volatility

Tredegar has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freeport-McMoRan has a beta of 1.41, meaning that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

79.2% of Tredegar shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.8% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of Tredegar shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by company 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Tredegar and Freeport-McMoRan”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tredegar	$722.86 million	0.33	$33.48 million	$0.96	7.19
Freeport-McMoRan	$25.91 billion	3.84	$2.20 billion	$2.03	34.10

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

Profitability

This table compares Tredegar and Freeport-McMoRan’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tredegar	4.26%	14.52%	8.07%
Freeport-McMoRan	11.39%	10.63%	5.69%

Summary

Freeport-McMoRan beats Tredegar on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tredegar

Tredegar Corporation manufactures and sells aluminum extrusions, polyethylene (PE) films, and plastic and polyester films in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Aluminum Extrusions, PE Films, and Flexible Packaging Films. The Aluminum Extrusions segment produces soft and medium strength alloyed aluminum extrusions, custom fabricated and finished aluminum extrusions for the building and construction, automotive and transportation, consumer durables, machinery and equipment, electrical and renewable energy, and distribution markets; and manufactures mill, anodized, and painted and alloyed aluminum extrusions to fabricators and distributors. The PE Films segment offers single- and multi-layer surface protection films for protecting components of flat panel and flexible displays that are used in televisions, monitors, notebooks, smart phones, tablets, e-readers, and digital signage under the UltraMask, ForceField, ForceField PEARL, Pearl A, and Obsidian brands. This segment provides polyethylene overwrap for bathroom tissue and paper towels, as well as polyethylene overwrap films and films for other markets. The Flexible Packaging Films segment offers polyester-based films for food packaging and industrial applications under the Ecophane and Sealphane brands. Tredegar Corporation was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile. The company was formerly known as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and changed its name to Freeport-McMoRan Inc. in July 2014. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.