Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) vs. Knightscope (NASDAQ:KSCP) Critical Analysis

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) and Knightscope (NASDAQ:KSCP) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Waste Connections has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Knightscope has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Waste Connections and Knightscope”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Waste Connections	$9.47 billion	4.13	$1.08 billion	$4.15	37.45
Knightscope	$11.34 million	2.35	-$33.81 million	($3.43)	-0.33

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Waste Connections and Knightscope, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Waste Connections	0	3	15	2	2.95
Knightscope	1	0	3	0	2.50

Waste Connections presently has a consensus price target of $202.42, suggesting a potential upside of 30.25%. Knightscope has a consensus price target of $12.67, suggesting a potential upside of 1,011.11%. Given Knightscope’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Knightscope is more favorable than Waste Connections.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.1% of Waste Connections shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.6% of Knightscope shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Waste Connections shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Knightscope shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Waste Connections and Knightscope’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Waste Connections	10.86%	17.31%	6.62%
Knightscope	-217.29%	-152.20%	-90.99%

Summary

Waste Connections beats Knightscope on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Waste Connections

Waste Connections, Inc. provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals. The company owns and operates transfer stations that receive compact and/or load waste to be transported to landfills or treatment facilities through truck, rail, or barge; and intermodal services for the rail haul movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest through a network of intermodal facilities. In addition, it provides E&P waste treatment, recovery, and disposal services for waste resulting from oil and natural gas exploration and production activity, such as drilling fluids, drill cuttings, completion fluids, and flowback water; production wastes and produced water during a well's operating life; contaminated soils that require treatment during site reclamation; and substances, which require clean-up after a spill, reserve pit clean-up, or pipeline rupture. Further, the company offers leasing services to its customers. Waste Connections, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Woodbridge, Canada.

About Knightscope

Knightscope, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, deploys, and supports autonomous security robots (ASR) in the United States. Its products include K3 and K5 ASRs designed to roam a geo-fenced area autonomously by utilizing numerous sensors and lasers, either on a random basis or based on a particular patrolling algorithm to navigate around people, vehicles, and objects in dynamic indoor or outdoor environments; K1, an ASR for used in indoors or outdoors and at ingress/egress points for both people and vehicles; and K7, a multi-terrain ASR. The company also develops and operates the Knightscope security operations center (KSOC), a browser-based interface, which allows real-time data access service to its clients for alert of an abnormal event; and Knightscope network operations center (KNOC), a custom set of tools that enables it to manage and monitor the network of ASRs with alerts related to critical indicators and statistics, including charging, software, navigation, and temperatures, as well as to execute over-the-air software upgrades, patches, and other related items. In addition, it offers Knightscope+, a virtual monitoring and response solution that provides an alternative for client sites. The company serves airports, commercial real estate, corporate campus, homeowner associations, hotels, universities, municipalities, rail, healthcare, public parks, schools, casinos, corporations, logistics, manufacturing, law enforcement, Parking areas, municipalities, universities, and property management companies, as well as the U.S. federal government. Knightscope, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.