Head to Head Analysis: Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) & Vestis (NYSE:VSTS)

Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) and Vestis (NYSE:VSTS) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Clean Harbors and Vestis, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clean Harbors	0	5	11	2	2.83
Vestis	4	3	1	0	1.62

Clean Harbors presently has a consensus target price of $365.29, indicating a potential upside of 26.67%. Vestis has a consensus target price of $12.66, indicating a potential downside of 14.41%. Given Clean Harbors’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Clean Harbors is more favorable than Vestis.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of Vestis shares are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of Clean Harbors shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.7% of Vestis shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Clean Harbors and Vestis”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clean Harbors	$6.03 billion	2.52	$390.97 million	$9.96	28.95
Vestis	$2.73 billion	0.71	-$40.22 million	($0.05)	-295.82

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

Risk & Volatility

Clean Harbors has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vestis has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Clean Harbors and Vestis’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clean Harbors	8.05%	18.27%	6.75%
Vestis	-0.20%	7.27%	2.20%

Summary

Clean Harbors beats Vestis on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Clean Harbors

Clean Harbors, Inc. provides environmental and industrial services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions. The Environmental Services segment collects, transports, treats, and disposes hazardous and non-hazardous waste, such as resource recovery, physical treatment, fuel blending, incineration, landfill disposal, wastewater treatment, lab chemicals disposal, and explosives management services; and offers CleanPack services, including collection, identification, categorization, specialized packaging, transportation, and disposal of laboratory chemicals and household hazardous waste. This segment also provides industrial maintenance and specialty industrial services; and utilizes specialty equipment and resources that performs field services. The Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions segment provides pickup and transportation services for hazardous and non-hazardous containerized waste for recycling or disposal; machine cleaning and maintenance, and disposal and replenishment of clean solvent or aqueous fluids; and vacuum services to remove solids, residual oily water, and sludge and other fluids from customers' oil/water separators, sumps, and collection tanks, as well as removes and collects waste fluids found at large and small industrial locations, including metal fabricators, auto maintenance providers, and general manufacturers. This segment also manufactures, formulates, packages, distributes, and markets lubricants and other automotive products. Clean Harbors, Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Norwell, Massachusetts.

About Vestis

Vestis Corporation provides uniform rentals and workplace supplies in the United States and Canada. Its products include uniform options, such as shirts, pants, outerwear, gowns, scrubs, high visibility garments, particulate-free garments, and flame-resistant garments, as well as shoes and accessories; and workplace supplies, including managed restroom supply services, first-aid supplies and safety products, floor mats, towels, and linens. The company serves manufacturing, hospitality, retail, food processing, food service, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, automotive, and cleanroom industries. Vestis Corporation was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in Roswell, Georgia.