Reviewing ALS (OTCMKTS:CPBLF) & Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK)

ALS (OTCMKTS:CPBLF) and Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ALS and Upwork”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ALS	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.29	54.57
Upwork	$787.78 million	1.35	$115.43 million	$0.77	11.10

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

Profitability

This table compares ALS and Upwork’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ALS	N/A	N/A	N/A
Upwork	12.94%	16.70%	7.94%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

23.2% of ALS shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Upwork shares are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of Upwork shares are held by 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for ALS and Upwork, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ALS	0	0	1	0	3.00
Upwork	1	9	3	0	2.15

ALS currently has a consensus target price of $28.00, suggesting a potential upside of 77.50%. Upwork has a consensus target price of $13.05, suggesting a potential upside of 52.72%. Given ALS’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe ALS is more favorable than Upwork.

Summary

Upwork beats ALS on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ALS

ALS Limited provides professional technical services primarily in the areas of testing, measurement, and inspection in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. It operates in two segments, Commodities and Life Sciences. The Commodities segment offers assaying and analytical testing, and metallurgical services for the mining and mineral exploration companies. Its testing and consulting services cover the resource life cycle, including exploration, feasibility, optimization, production, design, development, trade, and rehabilitation. This segment also provides coal sampling, analysis and certification, formation evaluation, and related analytical testing services. The Life Sciences segment offers analytical testing and sampling, and remote monitoring services for the environmental, food, pharmaceutical, and consumer products markets; and microbiological, physical, and chemical testing services. This segment provides analytical testing data to assist consulting and engineering firms, industries, and governments. ALS Limited was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.

About Upwork

Upwork Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a work marketplace that connects businesses with various independent professionals and agencies in the United States, India, the Philippines, and internationally. The company’s work marketplace provides access to talent with various skills across a range of categories, including administrative support, sales and marketing, design and creative, and customer service, as well as web, mobile, and software development. Its work marketplace also enables clients to streamline workflows, such as talent sourcing, outreach, and contracting. The company’s work marketplace offers access to various functionalities for remote engagements with talent, including communication and collaboration, ability to receive talent invoices through their work marketplace, and payment protection. Its marketplace offerings include Upwork Payroll and Upwork Enterprise, as well as managed and escrow services. The company was formerly known as Elance-oDesk, Inc. and changed its name to Upwork Inc. in May 2015. Upwork Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.