Critical Comparison: Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) vs. Virco Manufacturing (NASDAQ:VIRC)

Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) and Virco Manufacturing (NASDAQ:VIRC) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Clean Harbors has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Virco Manufacturing has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its stock price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Clean Harbors and Virco Manufacturing’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clean Harbors	8.05%	18.27%	6.75%
Virco Manufacturing	-1.31%	-2.32%	-1.39%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Clean Harbors and Virco Manufacturing”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clean Harbors	$6.03 billion	2.64	$390.97 million	$9.96	30.35
Virco Manufacturing	$199.65 million	0.49	$2.57 million	($0.16)	-38.75

Clean Harbors has higher revenue and earnings than Virco Manufacturing. Virco Manufacturing is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Clean Harbors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 31.0% of Virco Manufacturing shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.0% of Clean Harbors shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.9% of Virco Manufacturing shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Clean Harbors and Virco Manufacturing, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clean Harbors	0	5	11	2	2.83
Virco Manufacturing	1	1	0	0	1.50

Clean Harbors presently has a consensus target price of $365.21, suggesting a potential upside of 20.80%. Given Clean Harbors’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Clean Harbors is more favorable than Virco Manufacturing.

Summary

Clean Harbors beats Virco Manufacturing on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Clean Harbors

Clean Harbors, Inc. provides environmental and industrial services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions. The Environmental Services segment collects, transports, treats, and disposes hazardous and non-hazardous waste, such as resource recovery, physical treatment, fuel blending, incineration, landfill disposal, wastewater treatment, lab chemicals disposal, and explosives management services; and offers CleanPack services, including collection, identification, categorization, specialized packaging, transportation, and disposal of laboratory chemicals and household hazardous waste. This segment also provides industrial maintenance and specialty industrial services; and utilizes specialty equipment and resources that performs field services. The Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions segment provides pickup and transportation services for hazardous and non-hazardous containerized waste for recycling or disposal; machine cleaning and maintenance, and disposal and replenishment of clean solvent or aqueous fluids; and vacuum services to remove solids, residual oily water, and sludge and other fluids from customers' oil/water separators, sumps, and collection tanks, as well as removes and collects waste fluids found at large and small industrial locations, including metal fabricators, auto maintenance providers, and general manufacturers. This segment also manufactures, formulates, packages, distributes, and markets lubricants and other automotive products. Clean Harbors, Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Norwell, Massachusetts.

About Virco Manufacturing

Virco Mfg. Corporation engages in the design, production, and distribution of furniture in the United States and Canada. The company offers seating products, including 4-leg chairs, cantilever chairs, mobile task chairs and lab stools, tablet armchairs, steel-frame and floor rockers, series stools, hard plastic seating, folding and upholstered stack chairs, and plastic stack and upholstered ergonomic chairs. It also provides activity, butcher block, folding, office, technology, and mobile tables; desks and workstations, and instructor media stations and towers; chair desks and combo units, tablet arm and caster units, mobile workstations, student desks, and returns and credenzas; and computer furniture solutions. In addition, the company provides administrative office furniture, including desks, returns, bookcases, and other items, as well as steel storage cabinets, wardrobe tower cabinets, file credenzas, and mobile pedestals; laboratory furniture comprising steel-based science tables, table bases, lab stools, and wood-frame science tables; mobile furniture, such as mobile tables, mobile cabinets, and mobile chairs for school settings and offices; and handling and storage equipment, and stackable storage trucks. It serves public and private educational institutions, charter schools, convention centers and arenas, hospitality providers, government facilities, and places of worship through its sales and support teams, and dealers' network. Virco Mfg. Corporation was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Torrance, California.