Head to Head Review: Searchlight Minerals (OTCMKTS:SRCH) vs. Western Copper & Gold (NYSE:WRN)

Western Copper & Gold (NYSE:WRN) and Searchlight Minerals (OTCMKTS:SRCH) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Volatility & Risk

Western Copper & Gold has a beta of 1.62, suggesting that its share price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Searchlight Minerals has a beta of -0.05, suggesting that its share price is 105% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Western Copper & Gold and Searchlight Minerals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Western Copper & Gold	0	0	4	1	3.20
Searchlight Minerals	0	0	0	0	0.00

Western Copper & Gold currently has a consensus target price of $4.25, suggesting a potential upside of 338.14%. Given Western Copper & Gold’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Western Copper & Gold is more favorable than Searchlight Minerals.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Western Copper & Gold and Searchlight Minerals”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Western Copper & Gold	N/A	N/A	-$2.47 million	($0.03)	-32.33
Searchlight Minerals	N/A	N/A	-$2.28 million	N/A	N/A

Profitability

This table compares Western Copper & Gold and Searchlight Minerals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Western Copper & Gold	N/A	-3.53%	-3.45%
Searchlight Minerals	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

22.0% of Western Copper & Gold shares are held by institutional investors. 4.6% of Western Copper & Gold shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Western Copper & Gold beats Searchlight Minerals on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Western Copper & Gold

Western Copper & Gold Corp. operates as an exploration stage company, which engages in the acquisition, exploration, and future development of mineral resource properties. It currently focuses on the development of the Casino Project. The company was founded on March 17, 2006 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Searchlight Minerals

Searchlight Minerals Corp., an exploration stage company, engages in a slag reprocessing project; and the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in the United States. It holds interests in the Clarkdale slag project, located in Clarkdale, Arizona, which is a reclamation project to recover precious and base metals from the reprocessing of slag produced from the smelting of copper ore mined at the United Verde Copper Mine in Jerome, Arizona. The company was formerly known as Phage Genomics, Inc and changed its name to Searchlight Minerals Corp. in June 2005. Searchlight Minerals Corp. was founded in 1999 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.