ARQ (NASDAQ:ARQ – Get Free Report) and Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN – Get Free Report) are both materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for ARQ and Hawkins, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| ARQ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Hawkins | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
ARQ currently has a consensus target price of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 180.90%. Hawkins has a consensus target price of $170.50, suggesting a potential upside of 29.74%. Given ARQ’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe ARQ is more favorable than Hawkins.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares ARQ and Hawkins”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| ARQ | $120.34 million | 0.65 | -$52.61 million | ($1.26) | -1.41 |
| Hawkins | $1.08 billion | 2.53 | $81.55 million | $3.86 | 34.05 |
Hawkins has higher revenue and earnings than ARQ. ARQ is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hawkins, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility and Risk
ARQ has a beta of 2.08, suggesting that its stock price is 108% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hawkins has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
18.5% of ARQ shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.7% of Hawkins shares are held by institutional investors. 20.1% of ARQ shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Hawkins shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Profitability
This table compares ARQ and Hawkins’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| ARQ | -42.33% | -2.54% | -1.88% |
| Hawkins | 7.29% | 15.42% | 8.22% |
Summary
Hawkins beats ARQ on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.
About ARQ
Arq, Inc. is a holding company. It engages in the provision of environmental and emission control equipment to the power generation industry. The company operates through the following Segments: Refined Coal and Advanced Purification Technologies. The Refined Coal segment includes the Tinuum Group, Tinuum Services, and GWN Manager. The Advanced Purification Technologies segment refers to the sale of Activated Carbon Injection and Dry Sorbent Injection equipment systems, chemical sales, consulting services, and other sales related to the reduction of emissions in the coal-fired electric generation process and the electric utility industry. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Greenwood Village, CO.
About Hawkins
Hawkins, Inc. operates as a specialty chemical and ingredients company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Industrial, Water Treatment, and Health and Nutrition. The Industrial segment offers industrial chemicals, products, and services to agriculture, chemical processing, electronics, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and plating industries. This segment manufactures sodium hypochlorite and agricultural products, as well as various food-grade and pharmaceutical products, such as liquid phosphates, lactates, other blended products, and agricultural products; and receives, stores, and distributes various chemicals comprising liquid caustic soda, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, urea, phosphoric acid, aqua ammonia, and potassium hydroxide. It also repackages water treatment chemicals and bulk industrial chemicals; and performs custom blending of chemicals. The Water Treatment segment provides chemicals, products, equipment, services, and solutions for potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater, industrial process water, non-residential swimming pool water, and agriculture water. The Health and Nutrition segment offers ingredient distribution, processing, and formulation solutions to manufacturers of nutraceutical, functional food and beverage, personal care, dietary supplement and other nutritional food, and health and wellness products. Its products portfolio includes minerals, vitamins and amino acids, excipients, joint products, botanicals and herbs, sweeteners, and enzymes. Hawkins, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota.
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