Analyzing Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) and Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST)

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) and Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Casella Waste Systems has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clean Harbors has a beta of 1.16, indicating that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.5% of Casella Waste Systems shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are held by institutional investors. 3.8% of Casella Waste Systems shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.6% of Clean Harbors shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Casella Waste Systems and Clean Harbors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Casella Waste Systems	0.64%	4.97%	2.40%
Clean Harbors	6.51%	14.61%	5.25%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Casella Waste Systems and Clean Harbors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Casella Waste Systems	1	2	7	1	2.73
Clean Harbors	1	4	7	1	2.62

Casella Waste Systems presently has a consensus target price of $113.75, suggesting a potential upside of 28.90%. Clean Harbors has a consensus target price of $257.73, suggesting a potential upside of 24.32%. Given Casella Waste Systems’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Casella Waste Systems is more favorable than Clean Harbors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Casella Waste Systems and Clean Harbors”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Casella Waste Systems	$1.80 billion	3.12	$13.54 million	$0.24	367.71
Clean Harbors	$5.96 billion	1.86	$402.30 million	$7.21	28.75

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

Summary

Clean Harbors beats Casella Waste Systems on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Casella Waste Systems

Casella Waste Systems, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers. The company provides non-hazardous solid waste services, including collections, transfer stations, recycling, and disposal operations. In addition, it markets materials, including fibers, corrugated cardboard, newsprint, plastics, glass, ferrous, and aluminum metals. Casella Waste Systems, Inc. was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Rutland, Vermont.

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.