Contrasting Aris Mining (NYSE:ARMN) & Vista Gold (NYSE:VGZ)

Aris Mining (NYSE:ARMN) and Vista Gold (NYSE:VGZ) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.8% of Aris Mining shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of Vista Gold shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of Vista Gold shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Aris Mining and Vista Gold, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aris Mining	0	0	0	0	N/A
Vista Gold	0	0	1	0	3.00

Vista Gold has a consensus target price of $2.75, suggesting a potential upside of 319.85%. Given Vista Gold’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Vista Gold is more favorable than Aris Mining.

Profitability

This table compares Aris Mining and Vista Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aris Mining	2.46%	6.00%	3.06%
Vista Gold	N/A	128.18%	86.87%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Aris Mining and Vista Gold”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aris Mining	$466.26 million	1.68	$11.42 million	$0.05	92.80
Vista Gold	N/A	N/A	-$6.59 million	$0.09	7.28

Aris Mining has higher revenue and earnings than Vista Gold. Vista Gold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aris Mining, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Vista Gold beats Aris Mining on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aris Mining

Aris Mining Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of gold properties in Canada, Colombia, and Guyana. It also explores for silver and copper deposits. The company was formerly known as GCM Mining Corp. and changed its name to Aris Mining Corporation in September 2022. Aris Mining Corporation is based in Vancouver, Canada.

About Vista Gold

Vista Gold Corp., together with its subsidiaries, acquires, explores, evaluates, and advances gold exploration and development projects in Australia. Its flagship asset is the 100% owned Mt Todd gold project located in Northern Territory, Australia. The company was incorporated in 1983 and is based in Englewood, Colorado.