Financial Survey: Energy Services of America (OTCMKTS:ESOA) & Aecon Group (OTCMKTS:AEGXF)

Energy Services of America (OTCMKTS:ESOA) and Aecon Group (OTCMKTS:AEGXF) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.1% of Energy Services of America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.8% of Aecon Group shares are held by institutional investors. 44.7% of Energy Services of America shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Energy Services of America and Aecon Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Energy Services of America	0	0	0	0	0.00
Aecon Group	0	2	3	0	2.60

Aecon Group has a consensus target price of $23.00, indicating a potential downside of 12.88%. Given Aecon Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Aecon Group is more favorable than Energy Services of America.

Dividends

Energy Services of America pays an annual dividend of $0.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Aecon Group pays an annual dividend of $0.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Energy Services of America pays out 65.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aecon Group pays out 95.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

This table compares Energy Services of America and Aecon Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Energy Services of America	N/A	N/A	N/A
Aecon Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Energy Services of America and Aecon Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Energy Services of America	$424.47 million	N/A	N/A	$0.18	77.65
Aecon Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.37	72.25

Aecon Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Energy Services of America, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Aecon Group beats Energy Services of America on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Energy Services of America

Energy Services of America Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides contracting services for utilities and energy related companies in the United States. The company constructs, replaces, and repairs interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines and storage facilities for utility companies and private natural gas companies; and provides services relating to pipeline, storage facilities, and plant works. It also offers electrical and mechanical installation, and repair services, including substation and switchyard, site preparation, equipment setting, pipe fabrication and installation, packaged buildings, transformers, and other ancillary works for the gas, petroleum power, chemical, water and sewer, and automotive industries. In addition, the company provides corrosion protection services, horizontal drilling services, liquid pipeline and pump station construction, production facility construction, water and sewer pipeline installation, and various maintenance and repair services, as well as other services related to pipeline construction. Further, it serves customers primarily in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Energy Services of America Corporation was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Huntington, West Virginia.

About Aecon Group

Aecon Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provide construction and infrastructure development services to private and public sector clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Construction and Concessions. The Construction segment focuses on civil infrastructure, urban transportation solutions, nuclear power infrastructure, utility infrastructure, and conventional industrial infrastructure market sectors. The Concessions segment engages in the development, building, financing, and operation of construction projects by way of public-private partnership contract structures. This segment also provides development of domestic international public-private partnership; private finance solution; developing strategic partnerships; leading and/or participating in development teams; and operations and maintenance of infrastructure assets services. The company was formerly known as Prefac Concrete Co. Ltd. and changed its name to Aecon Group Inc. in June 2001. Aecon Group Inc. was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.