Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) vs. LGN (NASDAQ:LGN) Financial Review

Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) and LGN (NASDAQ:LGN) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sterling Infrastructure and LGN”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sterling Infrastructure	$2.49 billion	6.13	$290.15 million	$13.87	35.95
LGN	$2.55 billion	2.03	-$59.78 million	$0.40	119.53

Sterling Infrastructure has higher earnings, but lower revenue than LGN. Sterling Infrastructure is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LGN, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.9% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of LGN shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Sterling Infrastructure and LGN’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sterling Infrastructure	12.55%	40.12%	17.15%
LGN	-1.20%	4.33%	1.23%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Sterling Infrastructure and LGN, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sterling Infrastructure	0	2	6	0	2.75
LGN	1	1	10	2	2.93

Sterling Infrastructure currently has a consensus price target of $733.00, indicating a potential upside of 47.01%. LGN has a consensus price target of $101.33, indicating a potential upside of 111.95%. Given LGN’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe LGN is more favorable than Sterling Infrastructure.

Summary

Sterling Infrastructure beats LGN on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sterling Infrastructure

Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. engages in the provision of e-infrastructure, transportation, and building solutions primarily in the United States. It operates through three segments: E-Infrastructure Solutions, Transportation Solutions, and Building Solutions. The E-Infrastructure Solutions segment provides site development services for the blue-chip end users in the e-commerce distribution center, data center, manufacturing, warehousing, and power generation sectors. The Transportation Solutions segment is involved in the development of infrastructure and rehabilitation projects for highways, roads, bridges, airports, ports, rail, and storm drainage systems for the departments of transportation in various states, regional transit authorities, airport authorities, port authorities, water authorities, and railroads. The Building Solutions segment provides residential and commercial concrete foundations for single-family and multi-family homes, parking structures, elevated slabs, other concrete work for developers and general contractors, as well as provides plumbing services for residential builds. The company was formerly known as Sterling Construction Company, Inc. and changed its name to Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. in June 2022. Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

About LGN

Legence Corp. is a provider of engineering, consulting, installation and maintenance services for mission-critical systems in buildings. The company specializes in designing, fabricating and installing complex HVAC, process piping and other mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. Legence Corp. is based in SAN JOSE, Calif.