Reviewing HNI (NYSE:HNI) and Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST)

HNI (NYSE:HNI) and Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.3% of HNI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.5% of Casella Waste Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of HNI shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Casella Waste Systems shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for HNI and Casella Waste Systems, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HNI	0	1	1	0	2.50
Casella Waste Systems	1	2	5	1	2.67

HNI presently has a consensus target price of $65.00, suggesting a potential upside of 38.42%. Casella Waste Systems has a consensus target price of $110.50, suggesting a potential upside of 31.47%. Given HNI’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe HNI is more favorable than Casella Waste Systems.

Profitability

This table compares HNI and Casella Waste Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HNI	0.10%	13.66%	5.23%
Casella Waste Systems	0.29%	5.32%	2.49%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares HNI and Casella Waste Systems”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HNI	$4.39 billion	0.77	$54.20 million	$0.09	521.78
Casella Waste Systems	$1.84 billion	2.91	$7.87 million	$0.09	933.89

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

Risk and Volatility

HNI has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Casella Waste Systems has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Casella Waste Systems beats HNI on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HNI

HNI Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, sale, and marketing of workplace furnishings and residential building products primarily in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Workplace Furnishings and Residential Building Products. The Workplace Furnishings segment offers a range of commercial and home office furniture, including panel-based and freestanding furniture systems, seating, storage, benching, tables, architectural products, and ancillary and hospitality products, as well as social collaborative items under the HON, Allsteel, Beyond, Gunlocke, HBF, HBF Textiles, HNI India, Kimball, National, Etc., Interwoven, David Edward, Kimball Hospitality, and D'style brands. This segment sells its products through independent office products dealers, wholesalers, office product distributors, e-commerce focused resellers, and wholesalers, as well as directly to end-user customers and governments. The Residential Building Products segment provides various gas, wood, electric, and pellet-fueled prefabricated fireplaces; and inserts, hearth stoves, facings, outdoor fire pits and fire tables, and accessories. This segment sells its products primarily for home use under the Heatilator, Heat & Glo, Majestic, Monessen, Quadra-Fire, Harman, Vermont Castings, PelPro, Stellar, SimpliFire, The Outdoor GreatRoom Company, and Forge & Flame brand names through independent dealers and distributors, and corporation-owned distribution and retail outlets. The company was incorporated in 1944 and is headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa.

About Casella Waste Systems

Casella Waste Systems, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers. The company provides non-hazardous solid waste services, including collections, transfer stations, recycling, and disposal operations. In addition, it markets materials, including fibers, corrugated cardboard, newsprint, plastics, glass, ferrous, and aluminum metals. Casella Waste Systems, Inc. was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Rutland, Vermont.