Critical Contrast: Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) and TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS)

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) and TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Century Aluminum and TriMas”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Century Aluminum	$2.22 billion	0.93	$336.80 million	$1.16	19.04
TriMas	$925.01 million	1.70	$24.25 million	$0.91	42.56

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Century Aluminum and TriMas, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Century Aluminum	0	0	3	1	3.25
TriMas	0	0	2	1	3.33

Century Aluminum presently has a consensus price target of $24.67, indicating a potential upside of 11.66%. TriMas has a consensus price target of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.19%. Given TriMas’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe TriMas is more favorable than Century Aluminum.

Volatility & Risk

Century Aluminum has a beta of 2.55, meaning that its share price is 155% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TriMas has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Century Aluminum and TriMas’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Century Aluminum	4.94%	18.02%	6.21%
TriMas	3.83%	11.49%	5.72%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

61.6% of Century Aluminum shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.4% of TriMas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Century Aluminum shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of TriMas shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Century Aluminum beats TriMas on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Century Aluminum

Century Aluminum Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production of standard-grade and value-added primary aluminum products in the United States and Iceland. It also owns and operates an alumina production facility in Iceland, and a carbon anode production facility in the Netherlands. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About TriMas

TriMas Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of products for consumer products, aerospace, and industrial markets worldwide. The company operates through Packaging, Aerospace, and Specialty Products segments. The Packaging segment offers dispensing products, such as foaming and sanitizer pumps, lotion and hand soap pumps, beverage dispensers, perfume sprayers, and nasal and trigger sprayers; polymeric and steel caps and closures comprising food lids, flip-top and beverage closures, child resistance caps, drum and pail closures, and flexible spouts; polymeric jar products; integrated dispensers; bag-in-box products; and consumable vascular delivery and diagnostic test components under the Rieke, Taplast, Affaba & Ferrari, Intertech, Omega, and Rapak brands. The Aerospace segment provides fasteners, collars, blind bolts, rivets, ducting, and connectors for air management systems, and other highly-machined parts and components to original equipment manufacturers, supply chain distributors, and tier one suppliers, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO)/aftermarket providers; and military and defense aerospace applications and platforms under the Monogram Aerospace Fasteners, Allfast Fastening Systems, Mac Fasteners, TFI Aerospace, RSA Engineered Products, and Martinic Engineering brands. The Specialty Products segment offers steel cylinders for use in the transportation, storage, and dispensing of compressed gases under the Norris Cylinder brand; natural gas powered wellhead engines, compressors, and replacement parts for oil and natural gas production, and other industrial and commercial markets under the Arrow brand; and spare parts for various industrial engines. It sells its products through a direct sales force, third-party agents, and distributors. TriMas Corporation was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.