Head to Head Analysis: Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS)

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS) and Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

83.3% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of Clean Harbors shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.4% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.0% of Clean Harbors shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor and Clean Harbors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor	0	4	4	0	2.50
Clean Harbors	0	6	7	2	2.73

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor presently has a consensus target price of $54.88, suggesting a potential upside of 13.53%. Clean Harbors has a consensus target price of $322.08, suggesting a potential upside of 6.03%. Given Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor is more favorable than Clean Harbors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor and Clean Harbors”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor	$1.74 billion	4.64	$198.00 million	$1.24	38.98
Clean Harbors	$6.03 billion	2.66	$390.97 million	$7.38	41.16

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

Profitability

This table compares Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor and Clean Harbors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor	12.26%	17.40%	10.35%
Clean Harbors	6.53%	14.37%	5.25%

Volatility and Risk

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clean Harbors has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Clean Harbors beats Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation engages in design, procurement, manufacture, and marketing of water management solutions in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It offers water safety and control products, such as backflow preventers, fire system valves, pressure reducing valves, thermostatic mixing valves, PEX pipings, fittings, and installation tools under the Zurn and Wilkins brand names. The company also provides flow systems products comprising point drains, hydrants, fixture carrier systems, chemical drainage systems; and interceptors and separators, acid neutralization systems, and remote monitoring systems under the Zurn and Green Turtle brands. In addition, it develops, manufactures, and markets remote tank monitoring devices, alarms, software, and services. Further, the company offers sensor-operated flush valves under the AquaSense, Aquaflush, and AquaVantage brands; heavy-duty commercial faucets under the AquaSpec brand; water conserving fixtures under the EcoVantage and Zurn One brands; stainless steel products under the Just Manufacturing brand name, which include stainless steel sinks and plumbing fixtures, and various types of sinks, as well as drinking water dispensing and filtration products under the Elkay and Halsey Taylor brands. It distributes to institutional, commercial, waterworks, and residential end markets through independent sales representatives, plumbing wholesalers, and industry-specific distributors in the waterworks, foodservice, industrial, janitorial, sanitation, and sitework industries. The company was formerly known as Zurn Water Solutions Corporation and changed its name to Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation in July 2022. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation was incorporated in 1892 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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.