Financial Analysis: Mountain Province Diamonds (OTCMKTS:MPVDF) and Lithium Americas (Argentina) (NYSE:LAAC)

Mountain Province Diamonds (OTCMKTS:MPVDF) and Lithium Americas (Argentina) (NYSE:LAAC) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Mountain Province Diamonds and Lithium Americas (Argentina), as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mountain Province Diamonds	0	0	0	0	N/A
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	0	4	4	1	2.67

Lithium Americas (Argentina) has a consensus price target of $8.21, indicating a potential upside of 210.92%. Given Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Lithium Americas (Argentina) is more favorable than Mountain Province Diamonds.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Mountain Province Diamonds and Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mountain Province Diamonds	$243.43 million	0.10	-$32.35 million	($0.26)	-0.45
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	N/A	$1.29 billion	$7.99	0.33

Lithium Americas (Argentina) has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Mountain Province Diamonds. Mountain Province Diamonds is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lithium Americas (Argentina), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.4% of Mountain Province Diamonds shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.2% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.8% of Mountain Province Diamonds shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.8% of Lithium Americas (Argentina) shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Mountain Province Diamonds and Lithium Americas (Argentina)’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mountain Province Diamonds	-22.24%	2.02%	0.90%
Lithium Americas (Argentina)	N/A	3.09%	2.51%

Risk & Volatility

Mountain Province Diamonds has a beta of 2.08, meaning that its share price is 108% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lithium Americas (Argentina) has a beta of 1.35, meaning that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Lithium Americas (Argentina) beats Mountain Province Diamonds on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mountain Province Diamonds

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. focuses on the mining and marketing of rough diamonds worldwide. The company holds a 49% interest in the Gahcho Kué mine comprising mining leases covering an area of 5,216 hectares; and 100% of the mineral rights of the Kennady North consisting of 22 federal leases and 97 claims covering an area of 113,000 hectares located in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The company was formerly known as Mountain Province Mining Inc. and changed its name to Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. in October 2000. Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

About Lithium Americas (Argentina)

Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. operates as a resource company. The company explores for lithium deposits. The company owns interests in the Cauchari-Olaroz project located in Jujuy province of Argentina. It also has a pipeline of development and exploration stage projects, including the Pastos Grandes project and the Sal de la Puna project located in Salta Province in northwestern Argentina. Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.