Contrasting Gevo (NASDAQ:GEVO) & KiOR (OTCMKTS:KIORQ)

KiOR (OTCMKTS:KIORQ) and Gevo (NASDAQ:GEVO) are both manufacturing companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for KiOR and Gevo, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KiOR	0	0	0	0	0.00
Gevo	0	1	1	0	2.50

Gevo has a consensus target price of $8.63, suggesting a potential upside of 456.45%. Given Gevo’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Gevo is more favorable than KiOR.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

35.2% of Gevo shares are held by institutional investors. 4.0% of Gevo shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares KiOR and Gevo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KiOR	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gevo	-510.04%	-14.95%	-12.69%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares KiOR and Gevo”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KiOR	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gevo	$17.20 million	21.57	-$66.21 million	($0.34)	-4.56

KiOR has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Gevo.

Summary

Gevo beats KiOR on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KiOR

KiOR, Inc., incorporated on July 23, 2007, is a development-stage and is a next generation renewable fuels company. The Company is engaged in developing a commercial process to produce cellulosic gasoline and diesel from abundant, lignocellulosic biomass. The Company has developed a two-step technology platform that converts non-food lignocellulose into cellulosic gasoline and diesel that can be transported using the existing fuels distribution system for use in vehicles. The other renewable fuels are derived from soft starches, such as corn starch or cane sugar, for ethanol, or from soy and other vegetable oils for biodiesel, cellulosic fuel is derived from lignocellulose found in wood, grasses and the non-edible portions of plants. The Company has not generated any revenue.

About Gevo

Gevo, Inc. operates as a carbon abatement company. It operates through three segments: Gevo, Agri-Energy, and Renewable Natural Gas. The company focuses on transforming renewable energy into energy-dense liquid hydrocarbons that can be used as renewable fuels. It offers renewable gasoline and diesel, isobutanol, sustainable aviation fuel, renewable natural gas, isobutylene, ethanol, and animal feed and protein. The company was formerly known as Methanotech, Inc. and changed its name to Gevo, Inc. in March 2006. Gevo, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.