Financial Analysis: Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) & i-80 Gold (NYSE:IAUX)

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) and i-80 Gold (NYSE:IAUX) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Risk & Volatility

Wheaton Precious Metals has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, i-80 Gold has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Wheaton Precious Metals and i-80 Gold, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wheaton Precious Metals	0	0	9	1	3.10
i-80 Gold	0	2	0	1	2.67

Wheaton Precious Metals currently has a consensus price target of $72.44, suggesting a potential downside of 5.75%. i-80 Gold has a consensus price target of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 474.15%. Given i-80 Gold’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe i-80 Gold is more favorable than Wheaton Precious Metals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.3% of Wheaton Precious Metals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.3% of i-80 Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Wheaton Precious Metals and i-80 Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wheaton Precious Metals	50.05%	8.85%	8.74%
i-80 Gold	-231.43%	-21.18%	-12.67%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Wheaton Precious Metals and i-80 Gold”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wheaton Precious Metals	$1.28 billion	27.14	$537.64 million	$1.16	66.26
i-80 Gold	$52.94 million	5.09	-$65.20 million	($0.36)	-1.69

Wheaton Precious Metals has higher revenue and earnings than i-80 Gold. i-80 Gold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wheaton Precious Metals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Wheaton Precious Metals beats i-80 Gold on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. primarily sells precious metals in North America, Europe, and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, palladium, and cobalt deposits. The company was formerly known as Silver Wheaton Corp. and changed its name to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. in May 2017. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About i-80 Gold

i-80 Gold Corp. is a mining company, engages in the exploration, development and production of gold and silver mineral deposits principally in the United States. i-80 Gold Corp. is based in Reno, Nevada.