LIME vs USLM: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of September 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: USLM is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. LIME and USLM share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined LIME and USLM exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Lime, legally Neutron Holdings, Inc., rents electric scooters and e-bikes by the minute through its own app and through partner apps including Uber. Riders unlock a vehicle parked on a city street, take a short trip (typically a mile or two), and end the ride in a permitted area. Lime operates in roughly 230 cities across 29 countries, served about 19 million riders in 2025, and holds around 27% share of docked and dockless shared micromobility worldwide. Revenue is essentially the sum of many small rides, so the economics come down to how many vehicles are on the street, how often each one is ridden, and what it costs to charge, repair, and rebalance them. Lime discloses revenue per vehicle per day (about $8.20 in the second quarter of 2026) as its core unit measure, and the average operational fleet reached roughly 408,000 vehicles, up 22% year over year.

Full LIME guide

United States Lime & Minerals (USLM) is a Dallas, Texas based producer of lime and limestone products, mining high-calcium and dolomitic limestone at its own quarries and processing it into crushed and pulverized limestone, aggregate, quicklime, hydrated lime, and lime slurry. Its plants sit mainly in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Colorado, giving it a defensible position in the south-central United States. End markets span steel manufacturing, construction (highways, roads, and buildings), municipal water and wastewater treatment, environmental and flue gas treatment, oil and gas services, roof shingle manufacturing, and agriculture. Because lime is heavy and costly to ship, quarries near their customers enjoy a natural regional moat.

Full USLM guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• LIME drivers: The competitive field thinned out before Lime listed; Unit economics improved faster than the fleet grew.
• USLM drivers: Pricing power and high margins; Fortress balance sheet and capital returns.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Seasonality is the number the guidance turns on. For USLM, demand is cyclical and tied to construction, industrial production, and energy activity, so a downturn in any of those pressures volumes, as seen in the first quarter of 2026 when revenue fell about 3.7%.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick LIME if you believe its drivers more; USLM if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the LIME and USLM guides.

LIME. The headline trailing PE near 5x is misleading, because roughly $298 million of the ~$210 million trailing net income comes from a single non-cash tax benefit (the release of a deferred tax valuation allowance) rather than operations. The multiples that describe the business are about 2.4x trailing sales and, netting out cash, roughly 7.5x the midpoint of 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance. Whether that is cheap depends on how much of adjusted EBITDA survives the depreciation of a fleet that has to be replaced on a multi-year cycle, and on the ~$180 million of annual capex it takes to keep that fleet on the street.

USLM. USLM grew revenue strongly in 2025 on higher volumes and pricing, then saw a modest first-quarter 2026 pullback as construction, oil and gas, and roof shingle demand softened while steel demand held firm. The valuation, roughly 23 times earnings and about 8 times sales, is rich for a materials company and reflects the market's regard for its margins and balance sheet. The token dividend understates capital returns, since the company has historically paid special dividends on top of the regular payout.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): LIME shows revenue (ttm) ~$986M, q2 2026 revenue ~$304M, up ~24% year over year, q2 2026 adjusted ebitda ~$84M (~28% margin); GAAP operating profit ~$13M, market cap ~$2.41B (~2.4x trailing sales); USLM shows revenue (fy2025) ~$372.7 million, up ~17% year over year, revenue (q1 2026) ~$87.8 million, down ~3.7% year over year, net income (q1 2026) ~$30.6 million, diluted eps (q1 2026) ~$1.06.

LIME and USLM are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined LIME and USLM exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.