Analyzing Sylvamo (SLVM) & The Competition

Sylvamo (NYSE:SLVM) is one of 17 publicly-traded companies in the “Paper mills” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Sylvamo to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Sylvamo and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sylvamo	0	1	1	0	2.50
Sylvamo Competitors	112	705	471	46	2.34

Sylvamo currently has a consensus price target of $52.50, indicating a potential upside of 22.75%. As a group, “Paper mills” companies have a potential upside of 27.37%. Given Sylvamo’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Sylvamo has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Volatility & Risk

Sylvamo has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sylvamo’s competitors have a beta of 1.32, indicating that their average share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Sylvamo and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sylvamo	7.87%	55.02%	12.80%
Sylvamo Competitors	7.59%	18.89%	6.66%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.1% of Sylvamo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.7% of shares of all “Paper mills” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Sylvamo shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.5% of shares of all “Paper mills” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Sylvamo pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Sylvamo pays out 14.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Paper mills” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.7% and pay out 57.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sylvamo and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sylvamo	$3.63 billion	$118.00 million	6.29
Sylvamo Competitors	$5.57 billion	$686.61 million	28.93

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

Summary

Sylvamo competitors beat Sylvamo on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Sylvamo

Sylvamo Corporation produces and markets uncoated freesheet, cutsize, offset paper, and pulp in Latin America, Europe, and North America. The company operates through Europe, Latin America, and North America segments. The Europe segment offers copy, tinted, and colored laser printing paper under REY Adagio and Pro-Design brands; and high-speed inkjet printing papers under the brand Jetstar; as well as produces uncoated freesheet papers. This segment also operates paper and pulp mill. The Latin America segment focuses on uncoated freesheet paper under Chamex, Chamequinho and Chambril brands, as well as produces HP papers. This segment also operates integrated mills and nonintegrated mills. The North America segment offers imaging, commercial printing, and converting papers, as well as uncoated papers under Hammermill, Springhill, Williamsburg, Accent, DRM and Postmark brand names. It distributes its products through a variety of channels, including merchants, e-commerce, agents, resellers, and paper distributors. The company was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.