Financial Review: NioCorp Developments (NASDAQ:NB) & Wealth Minerals (OTCMKTS:WMLLF)

Wealth Minerals (OTCMKTS:WMLLF) and NioCorp Developments (NASDAQ:NB) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Wealth Minerals and NioCorp Developments”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wealth Minerals	N/A	N/A	-$7.73 million	($0.04)	-1.30
NioCorp Developments	N/A	N/A	-$11.44 million	($0.77)	-2.75

NioCorp Developments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wealth Minerals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Wealth Minerals has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NioCorp Developments has a beta of -0.36, meaning that its stock price is 136% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Wealth Minerals and NioCorp Developments, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wealth Minerals	0	0	0	0	0.00
NioCorp Developments	0	0	2	0	3.00

NioCorp Developments has a consensus target price of $3.63, suggesting a potential upside of 70.99%. Given NioCorp Developments’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe NioCorp Developments is more favorable than Wealth Minerals.

Profitability

This table compares Wealth Minerals and NioCorp Developments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wealth Minerals	N/A	-28.18%	-27.86%
NioCorp Developments	N/A	-1,273.17%	-140.97%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.1% of Wealth Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 4.0% of NioCorp Developments shares are held by institutional investors. 19.1% of NioCorp Developments shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Wealth Minerals beats NioCorp Developments on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wealth Minerals

Wealth Minerals Ltd., a junior mineral resource exploration company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada, Chile, Peru, and Mexico. The company primarily explores for lithium, as well as for precious metal and copper deposits. Its flagship property is the 100% owned Atacama project that comprises 144 exploration concessions covering an area of approximately 46,200 hectares located in the Atacama Salar in Region II of Antofagasta, northern Chile. Wealth Minerals Ltd. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About NioCorp Developments

NioCorp Developments Ltd. engages in the exploration and development of mineral deposits in North America. It owns and develops the Elk Creek niobium/scandium/titanium project that owns one 226.43-acre parcel of land and associated mineral rights, and an additional 40 acres of mineral rights, as well as an optioned land package that covers an area of 1,396 acres located in Johnson County, southeast Nebraska. The company was formerly known as Quantum Rare Earth Developments Corp. and changed its name to NioCorp Developments Ltd. in March 2013. NioCorp Developments Ltd. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado.