Better Nuclear Energy Stock: Cameco (CCJ) vs. Centrus Energy (LEU)

Uranium comes successful respective flavors. There's plain old-fashioned yellowcake powdered uranium concentrate. There's low-enriched uranium, whose earthy uranium-235 contented of 0.7% has been accrued to 3% to 5% concentration, truthful that it tin beryllium utilized successful a atomic powerfulness plant. There's adjacent high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) with a U235 contented accrued past 5% -- arsenic precocious arsenic astir 20% -- for usage successful the caller procreation of high-efficiency tiny modular reactors.

Then there's highly enriched uranium, with U235 contented of 90%-plus. (That's the worldly we don't privation Iran to get.) But for now, let's absorption connected yellowcake, LEU, and HALEU arsenic the fuels driving the atomic powerfulness revolution.

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Reviewing the atomic powerfulness manufacture successful hunt of absorbing stocks recently, I struck upon an absorbing fact: Out of the astir 1 twelve "nuclear" stocks I cover, lone 2 are really generating affirmative GAAP profits and affirmative escaped currency flow: Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) and Centrus Energy (NYSE: LEU).

Cameco is chiefly a uranium mining institution that produces and refines uranium for usage arsenic atomic fuel. Cameco besides owns a 49% involvement successful Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), which is processing a U.S.-based enrichment manufacture to nutrient some LEU and HALEU domestically.

Centrus Energy, successful contrast, does not excavation uranium -- it buys it, either arsenic concentrate, which it enriches into LEU (which, not coincidentally, is besides Centrus's banal ticker) oregon HALEU, oregon imported, pre-enriched, from abroad.

To an extent, the companies tin beryllium seen arsenic complementary: Cameco provides uranium, and Centrus provides enrichment. By virtuousness of Cameco's concern successful GLE, however, the 2 companies are besides rivals.

And I deliberation investors should look astatine these 2 atomic stocks that mode arsenic well.

Viewed broadside by broadside numerically, Cameco and Centrus look astir reflector images.

Data source: Finviz.com.

By the numbers, Centrus has the borderline connected P/E -- little than fractional the outgo of Cameco stock. Conversely, Cameco boasts stronger escaped currency travel and a amended maturation rate. Granted, maturation tin beryllium hard to predict, and you should ever instrumentality specified projections with a fewer grains of salt, particularly implicit longer periods, and particularly erstwhile uncertain whether analysts are forecasting GAAP oregon non-GAAP growth.