Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN – Get Free Report) and Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH – Get Free Report) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.
Profitability
This table compares Waste Connections and Clean Harbors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Waste Connections | 6.65% | 16.07% | 6.37% |
| Clean Harbors | 6.51% | 14.61% | 5.25% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Waste Connections and Clean Harbors, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Waste Connections | 1 | 3 | 13 | 5 | 3.00 |
| Clean Harbors | 1 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 2.69 |
Risk and Volatility
Waste Connections has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clean Harbors has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
86.1% of Waste Connections shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Waste Connections shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.6% of Clean Harbors shares are held 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.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Waste Connections and Clean Harbors”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Waste Connections | $9.35 billion | 4.61 | $617.57 million | $2.40 | 70.24 |
| Clean Harbors | $5.96 billion | 1.88 | $402.30 million | $7.21 | 29.02 |
Waste Connections has higher revenue and earnings than Clean Harbors. Clean Harbors is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Waste Connections, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Waste Connections beats Clean Harbors on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Waste Connections
Waste Connections, Inc. provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals. The company owns and operates transfer stations that receive compact and/or load waste to be transported to landfills or treatment facilities through truck, rail, or barge; and intermodal services for the rail haul movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest through a network of intermodal facilities. In addition, it provides E&P waste treatment, recovery, and disposal services for waste resulting from oil and natural gas exploration and production activity, such as drilling fluids, drill cuttings, completion fluids, and flowback water; production wastes and produced water during a well's operating life; contaminated soils that require treatment during site reclamation; and substances, which require clean-up after a spill, reserve pit clean-up, or pipeline rupture. Further, the company offers leasing services to its customers. Waste Connections, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Woodbridge, Canada.
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.
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