Northwest Pipe (NASDAQ:NWPX) and AECOM (NYSE:ACM) are both industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and valuation.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings for Northwest Pipe and AECOM, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
Northwest Pipe | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
AECOM | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2.86 |
Northwest Pipe currently has a consensus target price of $33.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.66%. AECOM has a consensus target price of $57.5556, suggesting a potential downside of 14.66%. Given Northwest Pipe's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Northwest Pipe is more favorable than AECOM.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Northwest Pipe 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 |
---|
Northwest Pipe | $279.32 million | 1.14 | $27.90 million | $2.73 | 11.89 |
AECOM | $13.24 billion | 0.75 | $-186,370,000.00 | $2.15 | 31.37 |
Northwest Pipe has higher earnings, but lower revenue than AECOM. Northwest Pipe is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AECOM, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
82.3% of Northwest Pipe shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.8% of AECOM shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Northwest Pipe shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of AECOM shares are held 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.
Risk & Volatility
Northwest Pipe has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AECOM has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Northwest Pipe and AECOM's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
Northwest Pipe | 8.95% | 10.77% | 7.94% |
AECOM | -1.41% | 9.37% | 2.55% |
Summary
Northwest Pipe beats AECOM on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.