Electra Battery Materials (NASDAQ:ELBM) & Hycroft Mining (NASDAQ:HYMC) Critical Comparison

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Electra Battery Materials and Hycroft Mining, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Electra Battery Materials	1	0	1	0	2.00
Hycroft Mining	1	0	0	0	1.00

Electra Battery Materials presently has a consensus target price of $2.10, indicating a potential upside of 133.07%. Given Electra Battery Materials’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Electra Battery Materials is more favorable than Hycroft Mining.

Profitability

This table compares Electra Battery Materials and Hycroft Mining’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Electra Battery Materials	N/A	-48.57%	-17.70%
Hycroft Mining	N/A	N/A	-27.55%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Electra Battery Materials and Hycroft Mining”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Electra Battery Materials	N/A	N/A	-$21.49 million	($1.27)	-0.71
Hycroft Mining	N/A	N/A	-$60.90 million	($1.62)	-6.68

Hycroft Mining is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Electra Battery Materials, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Electra Battery Materials has a beta of 2.53, indicating that its share price is 153% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hycroft Mining has a beta of 2.47, indicating that its share price is 147% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

32.9% of Electra Battery Materials shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 7.4% of Hycroft Mining shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.7% of Electra Battery Materials shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Hycroft Mining shares are owned 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.

Summary

Electra Battery Materials beats Hycroft Mining on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Electra Battery Materials

Electra Battery Materials Corporation engages in the acquisition and exploration of resource properties in the United States and Canada. It primarily explores for cobalt and silver deposits. The company's flagship project is the Iron Creek cobalt-copper project located in Lemhi County, Idaho. It also operates a cobalt refinery for producing battery materials for the electric vehicle supply chain. The company was formerly known as First Cobalt Corp. and changed its name to Electra Battery Materials Corporation in December 2021. Electra Battery Materials Corporation was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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.