Stantec (NYSE:STN) versus Limbach (NASDAQ:LMB) Head to Head Survey

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

63.9% of Stantec shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.8% of Limbach shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Stantec shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.0% of Limbach shares are owned 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.

Risk & Volatility

Stantec has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Limbach has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stantec	0	2	5	0	2.71
Limbach	0	3	1	0	2.25

Stantec presently has a consensus price target of $175.00, indicating a potential upside of 139.05%. Limbach has a consensus price target of $88.00, indicating a potential upside of 83.17%. Given Stantec’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Stantec is more favorable than Limbach.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stantec	5.92%	19.37%	8.03%
Limbach	4.42%	23.22%	11.48%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Stantec and Limbach”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stantec	$5.83 billion	1.41	$343.11 million	$3.12	23.46
Limbach	$646.80 million	0.89	$39.06 million	$2.50	19.22

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

Summary

Stantec beats Limbach on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Stantec

Stantec Inc. provides professional services in the areas of infrastructure and facilities to the public and private sectors in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It offers evaluation, planning, and designing infrastructure solutions; solutions for sustainable water resources, planning, management, and infrastructure; environmental services; integrated architecture, engineering, interior design, and planning solutions for buildings; and energy and resources solutions. The company also provides consulting services in engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics. In addition, it offers planning and design services to clients in residential, logistics, retail, infrastructure, energy, higher education, and urban regeneration sectors; architectural and interior design, and planning services in the science and technology, commercial workplace, higher education, residential, and hospitality markets. Further, the company provides transportation advisory, transport engineering, and technical design; project delivery consultancy services for mining, resources, and industrial infrastructure projects; paleontological and archaeological services for the rail, transportation, water, and power and energy sectors; and environmental and cultural resource compliance services. Additionally, it offers consulting services in sustainable building design, energy infrastructure upgrades, sustainable district heating network, and e-mobility; and planning, design, construction administration, commissioning, maintenance, decommissioning, and remediation services. The company was formerly known as Stanley Technology Group Inc. and changed its name to Stantec Inc. in October 1998. Stantec Inc. was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada.

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.