Reviewing Kobe Steel (KBSTF) and Its Peers

Dividends

Kobe Steel pays an annual dividend of $4.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 38.7%. Kobe Steel pays out 24.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Diversified Consumer Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 5.6% and pay out 44.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Kobe Steel is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Kobe Steel and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kobe Steel	N/A	N/A	0.62
Kobe Steel Competitors	$3.29 billion	$218.13 million	16.35

Kobe Steel’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Kobe Steel. Kobe Steel is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

11.9% of Kobe Steel shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.7% of shares of all “Diversified Consumer Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 19.5% of shares of all “Diversified Consumer Services” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Kobe Steel and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kobe Steel	N/A	N/A	N/A
Kobe Steel Competitors	-2.08%	-39.06%	3.00%

Summary

Kobe Steel rivals beat Kobe Steel on 5 of the 9 factors compared.

Kobe Steel Company Profile

Kobe Steel, Ltd. engages in the materials, machinery, and electric power businesses worldwide. The company offers steel sheet products, including high-tensile strength, hot and cold rolled, electro-galvanized, and hot-dipped galvanized steel sheets; steel wire rods and bars; and aluminum and steel plates. It also provides steel casting and forging products, such as crankshafts, marine parts, chemical processing equipment, and rolls; materials for plastic molding; and titanium products, copper sheets and strips, and steel powders. In addition, the company offers robots and electric power sources, and welding materials; and machinery products, including standard compressors, tire and rubber machinery products, rotating machinery products, plastic processing machinery products, advanced technology equipment, rolling mill products, and ultra-high-pressure equipment, as well as LNG vaporizers, pressure vessels, brazed aluminum heat exchangers, and micro channel heat exchanger and reactors. Further, it provides signaling, communication, power supply, automatic fare collection, and platform screen door systems; hydraulic and mini hydraulic excavators, mini wheel loaders, and road machinery; construction, metal, forestry, and industrial waste recycling machinery; and crawler and wheel cranes. Additionally, the company generates and supplies electric power; offers material and structural analysis, testing, physical analysis, and other services; manufactures and sells target materials and test equipment; sells and rents detached homes; and provides brokerage, renovation, insurance, and other services, as well as operational management services of public facilities. It also provides services in the field of iron units; and water treatment, waste incineration, PCB detoxification, and soil remediation services. The company was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Kobe, Japan.