New Gold (NYSE:NGD) vs. Westwater Resources (NASDAQ:WWR) Head-To-Head Contrast

New Gold (NYSE:NGD) and Westwater Resources (NASDAQ:WWR) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for New Gold and Westwater Resources, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
New Gold	0	1	4	2	3.14
Westwater Resources	0	0	0	0	0.00

New Gold presently has a consensus price target of $3.60, suggesting a potential upside of 29.03%. Given New Gold’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe New Gold is more favorable than Westwater Resources.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

42.8% of New Gold shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 7.7% of Westwater Resources shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of New Gold shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Westwater Resources shares are held by 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares New Gold and Westwater Resources”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
New Gold	$924.50 million	2.39	-$64.50 million	$0.13	21.46
Westwater Resources	N/A	N/A	-$7.75 million	($0.13)	-4.36

Westwater Resources has lower revenue, but higher earnings than New Gold. Westwater Resources is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than New Gold, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

New Gold has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Westwater Resources has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares New Gold and Westwater Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
New Gold	11.10%	13.70%	6.31%
Westwater Resources	N/A	-5.89%	-5.50%

Summary

New Gold beats Westwater Resources on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About New Gold

New Gold Inc., an intermediate gold mining company, develops and operates of mineral properties in Canada. It primarily explores for gold, silver, and copper deposits. The company’s principal operating properties include 100% interest in the Rainy River mine located in Northwestern Ontario, Canada; and New Afton project situated in South-Central British Columbia. New Gold Inc. is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About Westwater Resources

Westwater Resources, Inc. operates as an energy technology company, focuses on developing battery-grade natural graphite materials. The company holds interests in Kellyton Graphite Plant located in Kellyton, Alabama; and Bama Mine Project situated in south Alabama. It holds interests in Coosa graphite project located in Coosa County, Alabama. The company was formerly known as Uranium Resources, Inc. and changed its name to Westwater Resources, Inc. in August 2017. Westwater Resources, Inc. was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado.