urban-gro (NASDAQ:UGRO) & MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) Head-To-Head Contrast

MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) and urban-gro (NASDAQ:UGRO) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, urban-gro has a beta of -2.91, indicating that its share price is 391% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares MSC Industrial Direct and urban-gro’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSC Industrial Direct	5.91%	17.34%	9.79%
urban-gro	-82.11%	-118.44%	-33.76%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.6% of urban-gro shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.0% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of urban-gro shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares MSC Industrial Direct and urban-gro”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSC Industrial Direct	$3.77 billion	1.92	$199.33 million	$4.14	31.28
urban-gro	$17.40 million	0.01	-$22.10 million	($27.87)	-0.00

MSC Industrial Direct has higher revenue and earnings than urban-gro. urban-gro is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSC Industrial Direct, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for MSC Industrial Direct and urban-gro, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSC Industrial Direct	0	4	4	0	2.50
urban-gro	1	0	0	0	1.00

MSC Industrial Direct presently has a consensus price target of $123.43, suggesting a potential downside of 4.69%. Given MSC Industrial Direct’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe MSC Industrial Direct is more favorable than urban-gro.

Summary

MSC Industrial Direct beats urban-gro on 14 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MSC Industrial Direct

MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes metalworking and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products and services in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's MRO products include cutting tools, measuring instruments, tooling components, metalworking products, fasteners, flat stock products, raw materials, abrasives, machinery hand and power tools, safety and janitorial supplies, plumbing supplies, materials handling products, power transmission components, and electrical supplies. It offers stock-keeping units through its catalogs and brochures; e-commerce channels, including its website, mscdirect.com; inventory management solutions; and customer care centers, customer fulfillment centers, regional inventory centers, and warehouses. The company serves individual machine shops, manufacturing companies, and government agencies. MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Melville, New York.

About urban-gro

urban-gro, Inc. engages in the designing, engineering, building, and integrating complex environmental equipment systems for indoor controlled environment agriculture (CEA) cultivation and retail facilities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company provides architectural design, engineering, and construction services comprising pre-construction, cultivation space programming (CSP), architectural and interior design, engineering, integrated cultivation design, owner's representative/construction management, and general contracting services; and maintenance, training, and support services. It also offers facility and equipment commissioning services; gro-care crop and asset protection services, including training services, equipment maintenance services, asset protection program, and an interactive online operating support system for gro-care and client document delivery and project management; and property condition assessment services. In addition, the company provides integrated equipment systems solutions, such as design, source, and integration of complex environmental equipment systems comprising heating, ventilation, and air conditioning solutions, as well as environmental control, fertigation, irrigation distribution, water treatment, and wastewater reclamation systems; and commercial horticulture lighting solutions, rolling and automated container benching systems, specialty fans, microbial mitigation, and odor reduction systems. Further, it offers value-Added Reselling (VAR) of cultivation equipment systems; and strategic vendor relationships with premier manufacturers. It primarily markets and sells its solutions to clients in the CEA that includes operators and facilitators in the cannabis and produce markets; and commercial sectors comprising food and beverage consumer packaged goods companies, healthcare, higher education, and hospitality. urban-gro, Inc. was founded in 2014 and is based in Lafayette, Colorado.