Financial Analysis: Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) versus Brink’s (NYSE:BCO)

Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) and Brink’s (NYSE:BCO) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Risk & Volatility

Clean Harbors has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brink’s has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Clean Harbors and Brink’s”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clean Harbors	$6.24 billion	2.70	$390.97 million	$8.24	38.71
Brink’s	$5.26 billion	0.80	$199.70 million	$4.32	23.55

Clean Harbors has higher revenue and earnings than Brink’s. Brink’s is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Clean Harbors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of Brink’s shares are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of Clean Harbors shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Brink’s shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Clean Harbors and Brink’s, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clean Harbors	0	5	11	2	2.83
Brink’s	0	1	2	0	2.67

Clean Harbors presently has a consensus price target of $356.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.62%. Brink’s has a consensus price target of $154.00, indicating a potential upside of 51.36%. Given Brink’s’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Brink’s is more favorable than Clean Harbors.

Profitability

This table compares Clean Harbors and Brink’s’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clean Harbors	7.03%	15.65%	5.75%
Brink’s	3.30%	87.18%	4.95%

Summary

Clean Harbors beats Brink’s on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Brink’s

The Brink’s Co. engages in providing cash management services, digital retail solutions, and ATM managed services. It operates through the following geographical segments: North America, Latin America, Europe, and Rest of World. The North America segment operates in the U.S. and Canada. The Latin America segment refers to the operations in Latin American countries. The Europe segment relates to operations in European countries. The Rest of World segment focuses on the operations in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The company was founded by Perry Brink and Fidelia Brink on May 5, 1859 and is headquartered in Richmond, VA.