Financial Analysis: GFL Environmental (GFL) & Its Peers

GFL Environmental (NYSE:GFL) is one of 39 publicly-traded companies in the “Waste Removal Svcs” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare GFL Environmental to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

64.7% of GFL Environmental shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.0% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are owned by institutional investors. 8.7% of GFL Environmental shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

GFL Environmental has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GFL Environmental’s peers have a beta of 0.62, suggesting that their average share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for GFL Environmental and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GFL Environmental	0	2	8	2	3.00
GFL Environmental Competitors	323	1117	1894	130	2.53

GFL Environmental presently has a consensus target price of $54.50, suggesting a potential upside of 9.64%. As a group, “Waste Removal Svcs” companies have a potential upside of 11.74%. Given GFL Environmental’s peers higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe GFL Environmental has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares GFL Environmental and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GFL Environmental	36.01%	3.93%	1.43%
GFL Environmental Competitors	-97.71%	-458.29%	-3.74%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares GFL Environmental and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
GFL Environmental	$5.62 billion	-$527.43 million	10.19
GFL Environmental Competitors	$3.26 billion	$263.08 million	30.84

GFL Environmental has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. GFL Environmental is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

GFL Environmental pays an annual dividend of $0.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. GFL Environmental pays out 1.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Waste Removal Svcs” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.1% and pay out 50.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. GFL Environmental has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years.

Summary

GFL Environmental beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

GFL Environmental Company Profile

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.