Gevo (NASDAQ:GEVO) and Hoku (OTCMKTS:HOKUQ) Financial Review

Gevo (NASDAQ:GEVO) and Hoku (OTCMKTS:HOKUQ) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.2% of Gevo shares are held by institutional investors. 7.1% of Gevo shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Hoku shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Gevo and Hoku, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gevo	1	2	2	0	2.20
Hoku	0	0	0	0	0.00

Gevo presently has a consensus price target of $6.58, suggesting a potential upside of 224.30%. Given Gevo’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Gevo is more favorable than Hoku.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Gevo and Hoku”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gevo	$160.58 million	3.07	-$33.84 million	($0.13)	-15.62
Hoku	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Hoku has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Gevo.

Profitability

This table compares Gevo and Hoku’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gevo	-21.07%	-7.20%	-4.86%
Hoku	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

Gevo has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Hoku has a beta of -1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 204% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Gevo beats Hoku on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gevo

Gevo, Inc. operates as a carbon abatement company. It operates through three segments: Gevo, Agri-Energy, and Renewable Natural Gas. The company focuses on transforming renewable energy into energy-dense liquid hydrocarbons that can be used as renewable fuels. It offers renewable gasoline and diesel, isobutanol, sustainable aviation fuel, renewable natural gas, isobutylene, ethanol, and animal feed and protein. The company was formerly known as Methanotech, Inc. and changed its name to Gevo, Inc. in March 2006. Gevo, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

About Hoku

Hoku Corporation operates as a solar energy products and services company primarily in the United States. It focuses on manufacturing polysilicon, a primary material used in the manufacture of photovoltaic (PV) modules; and designing, engineering, and installing turnkey PV systems and related services in Hawaii using solar modules purchased from third-party suppliers. The company was formerly known as Hoku Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Hoku Corporation in March 2010. Hoku Corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. On July 2, 2013, Hoku Corporation along with its affiliates filed a voluntary petition for liquidation under Chapter 7 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Idaho.