Waste Management (WM) Competitors

Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) and Waste Management (NYSE:WM) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and media sentiment.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, CLH or WM?

Waste Management has higher revenue and earnings than Clean Harbors. Waste Management is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Clean Harbors, 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
Clean Harbors	$5.89B	2.22	$402.30M	$7.12	34.18
Waste Management	$22.06B	4.14	$2.75B	$6.74	33.65

Which has more volatility & risk, CLH or WM?

Clean Harbors has a beta of 1.18, suggesting that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Waste Management has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer CLH or WM?

In the previous week, Waste Management had 43 more articles in the media than Clean Harbors. MarketBeat recorded 53 mentions for Waste Management and 10 mentions for Clean Harbors. Clean Harbors' average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Waste Management's score of 0.84 indicating that Clean Harbors is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Clean Harbors	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Waste Management	31 Very Positive mention(s)	13 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of CLH or WM?

90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.4% of Waste Management shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.6% of Clean Harbors shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Waste Management 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 CLH or WM more profitable?

Waste Management has a net margin of 11.36% compared to Clean Harbors' net margin of 6.48%. Waste Management's return on equity of 34.37% beat Clean Harbors' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clean Harbors	6.48%	14.82%	5.24%
Waste Management	11.36%	34.37%	6.91%

Do analysts rate CLH or WM?

Clean Harbors presently has a consensus target price of $263.40, suggesting a potential upside of 8.23%. Waste Management has a consensus target price of $254.35, suggesting a potential upside of 12.15%. Given Waste Management's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Waste Management is more favorable than Clean Harbors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clean Harbors	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.90
Waste Management	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.73

Summary

Waste Management beats Clean Harbors on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.