Aegion (NASDAQ:AEGN) and AECOM (NYSE:ACM) are both construction companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
94.7% of Aegion shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.8% of AECOM shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Aegion shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of AECOM shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Profitability
This table compares Aegion and AECOM's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Aegion | -3.65% | 7.55% | 3.30% |
| AECOM | -1.41% | 9.37% | 2.55% |
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Aegion and AECOM, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Aegion | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
| AECOM | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2.86 |
Aegion currently has a consensus price target of $25.00, suggesting a potential downside of 18.19%. AECOM has a consensus price target of $57.5556, suggesting a potential downside of 14.16%. Given AECOM's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AECOM is more favorable than Aegion.
Risk and Volatility
Aegion has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AECOM has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its stock price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Aegion and AECOM's top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Aegion | $1.21 billion | 0.77 | $-20,890,000.00 | $1.21 | 25.26 |
| AECOM | $13.24 billion | 0.75 | $-186,370,000.00 | $2.15 | 31.19 |
Aegion has higher earnings, but lower revenue than AECOM. Aegion is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AECOM, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
AECOM beats Aegion on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
