Quanex Building Products (NX) Competitors

Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) and VSE (NASDAQ:VSEC) are both small-cap construction companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, risk, valuation, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, earnings and institutional ownership.

Is NX or VSEC more profitable?

Quanex Building Products has a net margin of 7.84% compared to VSE's net margin of 4.55%. Quanex Building Products' return on equity of 17.11% beat VSE's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Quanex Building Products	7.84%	17.11%	10.94%
VSE	4.55%	8.72%	3.90%

Is NX or VSEC a better dividend stock?

Quanex Building Products pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. VSE pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Quanex Building Products pays out 12.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. VSE pays out 16.7% 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. Quanex Building Products is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in NX or VSEC?

Quanex Building Products received 154 more outperform votes than VSE when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.40% of users gave Quanex Building Products an outperform vote while only 58.84% of users gave VSE an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Quanex Building Products	Outperform Votes 327 65.40%	Underperform Votes 173 34.60%
VSE	Outperform Votes 173 58.84%	Underperform Votes 121 41.16%

Do analysts rate NX or VSEC?

Quanex Building Products presently has a consensus price target of $35.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.27%. VSE has a consensus price target of $78.25, suggesting a potential upside of 0.76%. Given VSE's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe VSE is more favorable than Quanex Building Products.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Quanex Building Products	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
VSE	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Do insiders & institutionals believe in NX or VSEC?

97.5% of Quanex Building Products shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.5% of VSE shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of Quanex Building Products shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.6% of VSE shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, NX or VSEC?

Quanex Building Products has a beta of 1.35, meaning that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VSE has a beta of 1.67, meaning that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, NX or VSEC?

Quanex Building Products has higher revenue and earnings than VSE. Quanex Building Products is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than VSE, 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
Quanex Building Products	$1.13B	1.04	$82.50M	$2.63	13.48
VSE	$860.49M	1.42	$39.13M	$2.40	32.36

Does the media favor NX or VSEC?

In the previous week, VSE had 7 more articles in the media than Quanex Building Products. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for VSE and 5 mentions for Quanex Building Products. Quanex Building Products' average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat VSE's score of 1.06 indicating that Quanex Building Products is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Quanex Building Products	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
VSE	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Quanex Building Products beats VSE on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.