Contrasting Ecovyst (NYSE:ECVT) and BioLargo (NASDAQ:BLGO)

Ecovyst (NYSE:ECVT) and BioLargo (NASDAQ:BLGO) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Ecovyst and BioLargo, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ecovyst	0	0	4	0	3.00
BioLargo	0	0	0	0	N/A

Ecovyst currently has a consensus target price of $10.50, indicating a potential upside of 40.56%. Given Ecovyst’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ecovyst is more favorable than BioLargo.

Risk and Volatility

Ecovyst has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioLargo has a beta of 0.2, suggesting that its share price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ecovyst and BioLargo”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ecovyst	$695.31 million	1.25	$71.15 million	$0.46	16.24
BioLargo	$12.23 million	5.21	-$3.50 million	($0.02)	-10.59

Ecovyst has higher revenue and earnings than BioLargo. BioLargo is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ecovyst, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Ecovyst and BioLargo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ecovyst	7.74%	7.11%	2.77%
BioLargo	-16.53%	-58.35%	-32.12%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.7% of Ecovyst shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of BioLargo shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of Ecovyst shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.3% of BioLargo 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

Ecovyst beats BioLargo on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ecovyst

Ecovyst Inc. offers specialty catalysts and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Ecoservices and Advanced Materials & Catalysts. The Ecoservices segment provides sulfuric acid recycling services and end-to-end logistics for production of alkylate for refineries; and virgin sulfuric acid for mining, water treatment, and industrial applications. The Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment offers advanced materials and specialty catalyst products and process solutions to producers and licensors of polyethylene and advanced silicas. This segment also supplies specialty zeolites and zeolite-based catalysts to customers for refining of oil primarily hydrocracking catalyst and dewaxing, sustainable fuels, and emission control systems for both on-road and non-road diesel engines. The company was formerly known as PQ Group Holdings Inc. and changed its name to Ecovyst Inc. in August 2021. Ecovyst Inc. was founded in 1831 and is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

About BioLargo

BioLargo, Inc. invents, develops, and commercializes various platform technologies. Its technologies solve challenging environmental problems comprising per – and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) water contamination, advanced water and wastewater treatment, industrial odor and volatile organic compounds control, air quality control, infection control, and myriad environmental remediation. The company provides full-service environmental engineering services. BioLargo, Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is based in Westminster, California.