Vulcan Materials (VMC) Competitors

Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) and Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC) are both construction companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Do analysts recommend STRL or VMC?

Sterling Infrastructure currently has a consensus price target of $355.00, suggesting a potential upside of 27.45%. Vulcan Materials has a consensus price target of $308.36, suggesting a potential upside of 5.93%. Given Sterling Infrastructure's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Sterling Infrastructure is more favorable than Vulcan Materials.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sterling Infrastructure	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 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

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, STRL or VMC?

Vulcan Materials has higher revenue and earnings than Sterling Infrastructure. Sterling Infrastructure 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
Sterling Infrastructure	$2.12B	4.00	$257.46M	$9.20	30.28
Vulcan Materials	$7.42B	5.18	$911.90M	$7.16	40.66

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of STRL or VMC?

81.0% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of Vulcan Materials shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Vulcan Materials shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is STRL or VMC more profitable?

Sterling Infrastructure has a net margin of 13.33% compared to Vulcan Materials' net margin of 12.52%. Sterling Infrastructure's return on equity of 27.93% beat Vulcan Materials' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sterling Infrastructure	13.33%	27.93%	11.18%
Vulcan Materials	12.52%	12.81%	6.41%

Which has more volatility and risk, STRL or VMC?

Sterling Infrastructure has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vulcan Materials has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor STRL or VMC?

In the previous week, Vulcan Materials had 13 more articles in the media than Sterling Infrastructure. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Vulcan Materials and 12 mentions for Sterling Infrastructure. Vulcan Materials' average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Sterling Infrastructure'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
Sterling Infrastructure	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Vulcan Materials	20 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Vulcan Materials beats Sterling Infrastructure on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.