Critical Analysis: Clean Harbors (CLH) vs. Its Peers

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

Risk & Volatility

Clean Harbors has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clean Harbors’ rivals have a beta of 0.63, meaning that their average share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.0% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are held by institutional investors. 5.6% of Clean Harbors shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Clean Harbors and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clean Harbors	$5.89 billion	$402.30 million	32.43
Clean Harbors Competitors	$3.35 billion	$263.08 million	30.24

Clean Harbors has higher revenue and earnings than its rivals. Clean Harbors is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Clean Harbors and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clean Harbors	6.58%	15.47%	5.38%
Clean Harbors Competitors	-97.39%	-458.26%	-3.72%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Clean Harbors and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clean Harbors	0	2	7	0	2.78
Clean Harbors Competitors	324	1120	1896	131	2.53

Clean Harbors currently has a consensus price target of $257.67, indicating a potential upside of 10.04%. As a group, “Waste Removal Svcs” companies have a potential upside of 10.97%. Given Clean Harbors’ rivals higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Clean Harbors has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Summary

Clean Harbors beats its rivals on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

Clean Harbors Company Profile

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.