CRH (CRH) Competitors

CRH (NYSE:CRH) and Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC) are both large-cap construction companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, community ranking, profitability, valuation, risk, earnings, media sentiment and dividends.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in CRH or VMC?

62.5% of CRH shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of Vulcan Materials shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of CRH shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Vulcan Materials shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, CRH or VMC?

CRH has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vulcan Materials has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer CRH or VMC?

CRH currently has a consensus price target of $112.58, indicating a potential upside of 23.56%. Vulcan Materials has a consensus price target of $302.91, indicating a potential upside of 16.01%. Given CRH's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe CRH is more favorable than Vulcan Materials.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CRH	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Vulcan Materials	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is CRH or VMC a better dividend stock?

CRH pays an annual dividend of $1.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Vulcan Materials pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. CRH pays out 23.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Vulcan Materials pays out 27.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Vulcan Materials has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. CRH is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CRH or VMC?

Vulcan Materials received 141 more outperform votes than CRH when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.84% of users gave Vulcan Materials an outperform vote while only 56.96% of users gave CRH an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
CRH	Outperform Votes 495 56.96%	Underperform Votes 374 43.04%
Vulcan Materials	Outperform Votes 636 65.84%	Underperform Votes 330 34.16%

Does the media prefer CRH or VMC?

In the previous week, CRH had 3 more articles in the media than Vulcan Materials. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for CRH and 7 mentions for Vulcan Materials. Vulcan Materials' average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat CRH's score of 1.21 indicating that Vulcan Materials is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CRH	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Vulcan Materials	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, CRH or VMC?

CRH has higher revenue and earnings than Vulcan Materials. CRH is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vulcan Materials, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CRH	$35.80B	1.72	$3.18B	$4.72	19.30
Vulcan Materials	$7.51B	4.60	$933.20M	$7.05	37.04

Is CRH or VMC more profitable?

Vulcan Materials has a net margin of 12.30% compared to CRH's net margin of 9.86%. CRH's return on equity of 16.35% beat Vulcan Materials' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CRH	9.86%	16.35%	7.25%
Vulcan Materials	12.30%	12.83%	6.74%

Summary

Vulcan Materials beats CRH on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.