Head-To-Head Survey: Golden Minerals (NYSE:AUMN) & Hycroft Mining (NASDAQ:HYMC)

Golden Minerals (NYSE:AUMN) and Hycroft Mining (NASDAQ:HYMC) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.4% of Golden Minerals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 7.4% of Hycroft Mining shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.0% of Golden Minerals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Hycroft Mining shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Golden Minerals and Hycroft Mining, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Golden Minerals	0	0	1	0	3.00
Hycroft Mining	0	0	0	0	0.00

Golden Minerals currently has a consensus target price of $1.50, indicating a potential upside of 710.81%. Given Golden Minerals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Golden Minerals is more favorable than Hycroft Mining.

Risk and Volatility

Golden Minerals has a beta of -0.47, suggesting that its stock price is 147% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hycroft Mining has a beta of 2.1, suggesting that its stock price is 110% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Golden Minerals and Hycroft Mining”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Golden Minerals	$300,000.00	9.28	-$9.23 million	($0.52)	-0.36
Hycroft Mining	$33.23 million	2.08	-$55.02 million	($2.66)	-1.04

Golden Minerals has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Hycroft Mining. Hycroft Mining is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Golden Minerals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Golden Minerals and Hycroft Mining’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Golden Minerals	N/A	-1,051.75%	-57.22%
Hycroft Mining	N/A	-1,270.82%	-36.23%

Summary

Golden Minerals beats Hycroft Mining on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Golden Minerals

Golden Minerals Company, a precious metals exploration company explores for mineral properties in Argentina, Nevada, and Mexico. It explores for gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, and other minerals. The company was formerly known as Apex Silver Mines Limited and changed its name to Golden Minerals Company in March 2009. Golden Minerals Company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Golden, Colorado.

About Hycroft Mining

Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a gold and silver development company in the United States. The company holds interests in the Hycroft mine that consists of 30 private parcels with patented claims comprising approximately 1,787 acres, and 3,247 unpatented mining claims that encompass approximately 62,298 acres located in the state of Nevada. Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation is based in Winnemucca, Nevada.