Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) vs. GFL Environmental (NYSE:GFL) Head to Head Contrast

Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) and GFL Environmental (NYSE:GFL) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Clean Harbors and GFL Environmental, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clean Harbors	1	5	7	1	2.57
GFL Environmental	0	2	12	2	3.00

Clean Harbors presently has a consensus target price of $255.25, indicating a potential upside of 7.72%. GFL Environmental has a consensus target price of $57.08, indicating a potential upside of 27.17%. Given GFL Environmental’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe GFL Environmental is more favorable than Clean Harbors.

Risk & Volatility

Clean Harbors has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GFL Environmental has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.7% of GFL Environmental shares are held by institutional investors. 5.6% of Clean Harbors shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of GFL Environmental shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Clean Harbors and GFL Environmental”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clean Harbors	$5.96 billion	2.12	$402.30 million	$7.21	32.87
GFL Environmental	$5.62 billion	2.90	-$527.43 million	$6.38	7.04

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clean Harbors	6.51%	14.61%	5.25%
GFL Environmental	50.99%	3.06%	1.21%

Summary

Clean Harbors beats GFL Environmental on 8 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 GFL Environmental

GFL Environmental Inc. offers non-hazardous solid waste management and environmental services in Canada and the United States. It offers solid waste management, liquid waste management, and soil remediation services, including collection, transportation, transfer, recycling, and disposal services for municipal, residential, and commercial, and industrial customers. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Vaughan, Canada.