Granite Construction (GVA) Competitors

AECOM (NYSE:ACM) and Granite Construction (NYSE:GVA) are both construction companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and community ranking.

Which has more risk & volatility, ACM or GVA?

AECOM has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Granite Construction has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in ACM or GVA?

85.4% of AECOM shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of AECOM shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Granite Construction shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ACM or GVA?

AECOM received 170 more outperform votes than Granite Construction when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.05% of users gave AECOM an outperform vote while only 57.32% of users gave Granite Construction an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AECOM	Outperform Votes 538 65.05%	Underperform Votes 289 34.95%
Granite Construction	Outperform Votes 368 57.32%	Underperform Votes 274 42.68%

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, ACM or GVA?

AECOM has higher revenue and earnings than Granite Construction. AECOM is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Granite Construction, 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
AECOM	$16.05B	0.88	$402.27M	$4.59	23.28
Granite Construction	$4.03B	0.93	$126.35M	$2.40	35.57

Do analysts prefer ACM or GVA?

AECOM presently has a consensus price target of $119.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.35%. Granite Construction has a consensus price target of $76.00, suggesting a potential downside of 10.97%. Given AECOM's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe AECOM is more favorable than Granite Construction.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AECOM	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Granite Construction	1 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.00

Is ACM or GVA more profitable?

Granite Construction has a net margin of 3.15% compared to AECOM's net margin of 2.93%. AECOM's return on equity of 26.84% beat Granite Construction's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AECOM	2.93%	26.84%	5.47%
Granite Construction	3.15%	20.67%	7.36%

Does the media favor ACM or GVA?

In the previous week, AECOM had 9 more articles in the media than Granite Construction. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for AECOM and 10 mentions for Granite Construction. AECOM's average media sentiment score of 1.45 beat Granite Construction's score of 1.44 indicating that AECOM is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AECOM	15 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Granite Construction	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is ACM or GVA a better dividend stock?

AECOM pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Granite Construction pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. AECOM pays out 22.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Granite Construction pays out 21.7% 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. AECOM has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. AECOM is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

AECOM beats Granite Construction on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.