Financial Comparison: Novozymes A/S (OTCMKTS:NVZMY) & Green Plains (NASDAQ:GPRE)

Novozymes A/S (OTCMKTS:NVZMY) and Green Plains (NASDAQ:GPRE) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Novozymes A/S and Green Plains’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Novozymes A/S	N/A	N/A	N/A
Green Plains	-4.22%	-12.76%	-6.41%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.0% of Novozymes A/S shares are held by institutional investors. 3.2% of Green Plains shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Novozymes A/S pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Green Plains pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. Novozymes A/S pays out 48.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Green Plains pays out -28.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Green Plains is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Novozymes A/S and Green Plains, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Novozymes A/S	1	0	0	2	3.00
Green Plains	0	6	2	0	2.25

Green Plains has a consensus price target of $10.42, indicating a potential upside of 27.89%. Given Green Plains’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Green Plains is more favorable than Novozymes A/S.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Novozymes A/S and Green Plains”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Novozymes A/S	$4.15 billion	7.88	$330.91 million	$1.58	44.16
Green Plains	$2.46 billion	0.22	-$82.50 million	($1.69)	-4.82

Novozymes A/S has higher revenue and earnings than Green Plains. Green Plains is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Novozymes A/S, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Novozymes A/S has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Green Plains has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Novozymes A/S beats Green Plains on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Novozymes A/S

Novozymes A/S produces and sells industrial enzymes, microorganisms, and probiotics in Denmark, rest of Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and internationally. The company offers protein solutions for the food and beverage industry. It also offers industrial hygiene, drain openers, hard surface, medical cleaning, septic tanks, ware washing, and professional laundry services. In addition, the company provides dishwashing, softener, microbial and medical cleaning services. Further, it provides corn, cotton, forages, peanuts, pulses, soybeans, wheat, small grains, bioyield, and biocontrol solutions; warm water species, recirculating aquaculture system; animal health and nutrition solutions; fiber modification, bleach boosting, deposit control, and starch modification solutions. Additionally, the company provides carbon capture, leather and textiles solutions; enzyme solutions, including corn and wheat separation, liquefaction, saccharification, filtration, isomerization, maltose, and specialties solutions; warm water species and recirculating aquaculture system solutions; human health solutions, comprising brain, oral, protective and immune, and gastrointestinal health solutions; ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, education, wastewater, and sewage sludge, and renewable diesel solutions; agriculture and industry, biogas food waste, food waste, biocatalysis, cell culture, diagnostics, enzyme, and biogas solutions. Furthermore, it provides lipases, proteases, oxidoreductases, and carbohydrases. Novozymes A/S was founded in 1925 and is based in Bagsvaerd, Denmark.

About Green Plains

Green Plains Inc. produces low-carbon fuels in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Ethanol Production, Agribusiness and Energy Services, and Partnership. The Ethanol Production segment produces ethanol, distillers grains, and ultra-high protein and renewable corn oil. The Agribusiness and Energy Services segment engages in the grain procurement, handling and storage, commodity marketing business; and trading of ethanol, distiller grains, renewable corn oil, grain, natural gas, and other commodities in various markets. This segment also provides grain drying and storage services to grain producers. The Partnership segment offers fuel storage and transportation services. It operates 24 ethanol storage facilities; two fuel terminal facilities; and a fleet of approximately 2,180 leased railcars. The company was formerly known as Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. and changed its name to Green Plains Inc. in May 2014. Green Plains Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.