Critical Review: Lithium Americas (Argentina) (LAAC) versus Its Peers

Lithium Americas (Argentina) (NYSE:LAAC) is one of 89 publicly-traded companies in the “Metal mining” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Lithium Americas (Argentina) to similar businesses based on the strength of its dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

Lithium Americas (Argentina) has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s peers have a beta of 0.41, indicating that their average stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Lithium Americas (Argentina) and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	-$93.57 million	25.87
Lithium Americas (Argentina) Competitors	$7.61 billion	$1.66 billion	3.27

Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Lithium Americas (Argentina). Lithium Americas (Argentina) is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Lithium Americas (Argentina) and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	0	2	3	0	2.60
Lithium Americas (Argentina) Competitors	1007	2116	2583	83	2.30

Lithium Americas (Argentina) presently has a consensus target price of $12.20, suggesting a potential upside of 99.35%. As a group, “Metal mining” companies have a potential upside of 57.24%. Given Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Lithium Americas (Argentina) is more favorable than its peers.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

27.3% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.1% of shares of all “Metal mining” companies are held by institutional investors. 19.8% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of shares of all “Metal mining” companies are held by company 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 Lithium Americas (Argentina) and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	-0.05%	-0.04%
Lithium Americas (Argentina) Competitors	-361.16%	-3.43%	-4.17%

Summary

Lithium Americas (Argentina) beats its peers on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

About Lithium Americas (Argentina)

Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. operates as a resource company. The company explores for lithium deposits. It owns interests in the Cauchari-Olaroz project located in Jujuy province of Argentina; and Pastos Grandes project located in the Salta province of Argentina. Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.