Financial Contrast: IES (NASDAQ:IESC) vs. Bowman Consulting Group (NASDAQ:BWMN)

Bowman Consulting Group (NASDAQ:BWMN) and IES (NASDAQ:IESC) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Bowman Consulting Group and IES, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bowman Consulting Group	1	2	3	0	2.33
IES	0	1	1	0	2.50

Bowman Consulting Group currently has a consensus target price of $47.50, indicating a potential upside of 71.23%. IES has a consensus target price of $458.00, indicating a potential downside of 39.77%. Given Bowman Consulting Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Bowman Consulting Group is more favorable than IES.

Profitability

This table compares Bowman Consulting Group and IES’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bowman Consulting Group	2.02%	3.98%	1.84%
IES	11.40%	35.70%	19.68%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Bowman Consulting Group and IES”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bowman Consulting Group	$490.02 million	0.99	$12.85 million	$0.60	46.23
IES	$3.37 billion	4.49	$303.06 million	$22.51	33.78

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

Risk & Volatility

Bowman Consulting Group has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its share price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IES has a beta of 1.79, meaning that its share price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

63.2% of Bowman Consulting Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.6% of IES shares are held by institutional investors. 17.5% of Bowman Consulting Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 56.4% of IES 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.

Summary

IES beats Bowman Consulting Group on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bowman Consulting Group

Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. provides a range of real estate, energy, infrastructure, and environmental management solutions in the United States. It offers civil and site engineering services, such as conceptual land planning, environmental consulting and permitting, planning/zoning and entitlements, roadway and highway designs, erosion and sediment designs, stormwater management designs, construction administration, traffic studies, floodplain studies, and utility relocation designs; and commissioning and energy efficiency services comprise construction observation, direct systems functional performance testing, system development readiness checklist, post occupancy review, review of construction documents, deferred/seasonal functional testing, final commissioning report, and commissioning review of submittals. The company also provides construction management services, including constructability review, value engineering, budgeting and cost estimating, interagency and utility coordination, onsite observation and report evaluation, public communication and outreach, and resident engineer services, as well as bid solicitation, documentation, and preparation services; and environmental consulting services consisting of wetlands and waters of the U.S. delineations, natural resources inventories, wildlife and vegetation surveys, threatened and endangered species surveys, endangered species conservation and management, wetland creation and enhancement design, NEPA documentation, section 404/401 permitting and compliance, NPDES permitting, and phase I environmental site assessment. In addition, it offers landscape architecture, land procurement and right-of-way acquisition, structural engineering, surveying and geospatial engineering, and transportation and water resources engineering services, as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

About IES

IES Holdings, Inc. engages in the design and installation of integrated electrical and technology systems, and provides infrastructure products and services in the United States. The Communications segment designs, installs, and maintains network infrastructure within data centers for co-location and managed hosting customers; corporate, educational, financial, hospitality, and healthcare buildings; e-commerce distribution centers; and high-tech manufacturing facilities. This segment also provides design and installation services for audio/visual, telephone, fire, and wireless access and intrusion alarm systems; and engages in designing/building, servicing, and maintaining data network systems. The Residential segment offers electrical installations to single-family housing and multi-family apartments; and cable television installations to residential and light commercial applications, as well as installs residential solar power for new construction and existing residences. The Infrastructure Solutions segment maintains and repairs alternating and direct current electric motors and generators, and power generating and distribution equipment; manufactures custom-engineered metal enclosed bus duct solutions used in power distribution; manufactures custom commercial and industrial generator enclosures; manufactures, re-manufactures, and repairs industrial lifting magnets; and maintains and repairs railroad main and auxiliary generators, main alternators, and traction motors. The Commercial & Industrial segment offers electrical and mechanical design, construction, and maintenance services for office buildings, manufacturing facilities, data centers, chemical plants, refineries, wind farms, solar facilities, municipal infrastructures, and health care facilities. The company was formerly known as Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. and changed its name to IES Holdings, Inc. in May 2016. IES Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.