FMC (NYSE:FMC) and BioLargo (NASDAQ:BLGO) Financial Analysis

FMC (NYSE:FMC) and BioLargo (NASDAQ:BLGO) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

FMC has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioLargo has a beta of 0.2, indicating that its share price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FMC	33.97%	7.52%	2.67%
BioLargo	-16.53%	-58.35%	-32.12%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares FMC and BioLargo”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FMC	$4.08 billion	1.94	$1.32 billion	$8.96	7.09
BioLargo	$12.23 million	5.83	-$3.50 million	($0.03)	-8.00

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for FMC and BioLargo, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FMC	1	10	5	1	2.35
BioLargo	0	0	0	0	N/A

FMC presently has a consensus target price of $68.63, suggesting a potential upside of 7.97%. Given FMC’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe FMC is more favorable than BioLargo.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.9% of FMC shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of BioLargo shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of FMC shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 20.3% of BioLargo shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

FMC beats BioLargo on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About FMC

FMC Corporation, an agricultural sciences company, provides crop protection, plant health, and professional pest and turf management products. It develops, markets, and sells crop protection chemicals that includes insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and biologicals, crop nutrition, and seed treatment products, which are used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and quality by controlling a range of insects, weeds, and diseases, as well as in non-agricultural markets for pest control. The company markets its products through its own sales organization and through alliance partners, independent distributors, and sales representatives. It operates in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The company was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, 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.