Analyzing Worthington Steel (WS) and Its Peers

Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) is one of 1,987 public companies in the “Metals & Mining” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Worthington Steel to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Worthington Steel and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Worthington Steel	0	2	1	0	2.33
Worthington Steel Competitors	6336	22476	32100	1768	2.47

Worthington Steel currently has a consensus target price of $46.00, suggesting a potential upside of 24.32%. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies have a potential upside of 17.02%. Given Worthington Steel’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Worthington Steel is more favorable than its rivals.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Worthington Steel and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Worthington Steel	$3.44 billion	$8.50 million	26.62
Worthington Steel Competitors	$4.75 billion	$278.45 million	-28.32

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Worthington Steel	0.50%	8.87%	4.89%
Worthington Steel Competitors	-1,164,884,689,320,590,600.00%	-48.82%	-2.12%

Volatility and Risk

Worthington Steel has a beta of 2.24, suggesting that its share price is 124% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Worthington Steel’s rivals have a beta of 1.04, suggesting that their average share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

45.4% of Worthington Steel shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.0% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Worthington Steel shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.7% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies 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.

Dividends

Worthington Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Worthington Steel pays out 46.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.5% and pay out 10.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Worthington Steel lags its rivals as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

Worthington Steel rivals beat Worthington Steel on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Worthington Steel Company Profile

Worthington Steel, Inc. operates as a steel processor in North America. It offers carbon flat-rolled steel and tailor welded blanks, as well as electrical steel laminations; and aluminum tailor welded blanks. The company serves various end-markets, including automotive, heavy truck, agriculture, construction, and energy. Worthington Steel, Inc. was incorporated in 2023 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.