United States Lime & Minerals Inc. (NASDAQ:USLM) and GMS Inc. (NYSE:GMS), both competing one another are General Building Materials companies. We will compare their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United States Lime & Minerals Inc.	144.44M	2.98	19.68M	3.51	20.93
GMS Inc.	2.97B	0.23	48.36M	1.32	14.87

Table 1 shows gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation of the two companies. GMS Inc. has lower earnings, but higher revenue than United States Lime & Minerals Inc. Company that currently has a higher price-to-earnings ratio means that it is the more expensive of the two businesses. United States Lime & Minerals Inc.’s currently higher price-to-earnings ratio makes it the more expensive of the two businesses.

Profitability

Table 2 demonstrates the return on equity, net margins and return on assets of United States Lime & Minerals Inc. and GMS Inc.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United States Lime & Minerals Inc.	13.63%	13.3%	11.9%
GMS Inc.	1.63%	10.4%	3.4%

Liquidity

United States Lime & Minerals Inc.’s Current Ratio and Quick Ratio are 9.9 and 8.8 respectively. The Current Ratio and Quick Ratio of its competitor GMS Inc. are 2.8 and 1.8 respectively. United States Lime & Minerals Inc. therefore has a better chance of paying off short and long-term obligations compared to GMS Inc.

Dividends

United States Lime & Minerals Inc. shareholders receive an annual dividend of $0.54 per share which is subject to 0.7% dividend yield. GMS Inc. does not pay a dividend.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

The shares of both United States Lime & Minerals Inc. and GMS Inc. are owned by institutional investors at 26.9% and 92.4% respectively. United States Lime & Minerals Inc.’s share owned by insiders are 1%. Comparatively, insiders own roughly 1.5% of GMS Inc.’s shares.

Performance

Here are the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

	Performance (W)	Performance (M)	Performance (Q)	Performance (HY)	Performance (Y)	Performance (YTD)
United States Lime & Minerals Inc.	1.7%	6.58%	-1.45%	-2.58%	3.5%	3.59%
GMS Inc.	-2.77%	3.91%	7.14%	-25.89%	-37.38%	32.37%

For the past year United States Lime & Minerals Inc. has weaker performance than GMS Inc.

Summary

United States Lime & Minerals Inc. beats GMS Inc. on 11 of the 14 factors.

GMS Inc. distributes wallboards, suspended ceilings systems, and complementary interior construction products in North America. The company offers wallboard products; and ceilings products, such as suspended mineral fibers, soft fibers, and metal ceiling systems primarily used in offices, hotels, hospitals, retail facilities, schools, and other commercial and institutional buildings. It also distributes steel framing products, including steel tracks, studs, and various other steel products used to frame the interior walls of commercial or institutional buildings; and insulation, ready-mix joint compound, and various other interior construction products, as well as ancillary products, such as tools and safety products. The company markets and sells its products through a network of branches and distribution centers to the interior contractors, as well as home builders. GMS Inc. was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Tucker, Georgia.