Head-To-Head Analysis: Southland (NASDAQ:SLND) and Limbach (NASDAQ:LMB)

Limbach (NASDAQ:LMB) and Southland (NASDAQ:SLND) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

55.8% of Limbach shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.8% of Southland shares are held by institutional investors. 7.0% of Limbach shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 73.4% of Southland shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Limbach and Southland, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Limbach	2	1	2	0	2.00
Southland	0	1	0	0	2.00

Limbach presently has a consensus target price of $70.25, suggesting a potential upside of 37.26%. Given Limbach’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Limbach is more favorable than Southland.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Limbach	$646.80 million	0.94	$39.06 million	$2.50	20.47
Southland	$603.01 million	0.05	-$19.25 million	($7.46)	-0.08

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

Profitability

This table compares Limbach and Southland’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Limbach	4.42%	23.22%	11.48%
Southland	-10.38%	-47.71%	-8.75%

Risk and Volatility

Limbach has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southland has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Limbach beats Southland on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Limbach

Limbach Holdings, Inc. operates as a building systems solution company in the United States. It operates through two segments, General Contractor Relationships and Owner Direct Relationships. The company engages in the construction and renovation projects that involve primarily include mechanical, plumbing, and electrical services. It also provides critical system repair, MEP infrastructure projects, maintenance contracts, building automation upgrades, data driven insights, and program management services. In addition, it offers captive engineering capabilities, estimating and virtual design; and professional engineering, energy analysis, estimation, and detail design and three-dimensional building installation coordination services. The company serves research, acute care, and inpatient hospitals; public and private colleges, universities, research centers; sports arenas; entertainment facilities, and amusement rides and parks; data centers; automotive, energy and general manufacturing plants; and life sciences, including organizations and companies, whose work is centered around research and development focused on living things. Limbach Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Warrendale, Pennsylvania.

About Southland

Southland Holdings, Inc. engages in specialty infrastructure construction business in North America and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Civil and Transportation. The Civil segment designs and constructs water pipelines, pump stations, lift stations, water and wastewater treatment plants, concrete and structural steel, outfall, and tunneling. The Transportation segment designs and constructs bridges, roadways, marine, dredging, ship terminals and piers, and specialty structures and facilities, as well as convention centers, sports stadiums, marine facilities, and ferris wheels. Southland Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas.