Analyzing Oceanagold (NYSE:OGC) and North American Construction Group (NYSE:NOA)

North American Construction Group (NYSE:NOA) and Oceanagold (NYSE:OGC) are both materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Dividends

North American Construction Group pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Oceanagold pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. North American Construction Group pays out 43.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Oceanagold pays out 18.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. North American Construction Group has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. North American Construction Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for North American Construction Group and Oceanagold, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
North American Construction Group	0	5	2	0	2.29
Oceanagold	1	0	1	2	3.00

North American Construction Group currently has a consensus price target of $25.75, suggesting a potential upside of 93.32%. Given North American Construction Group’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe North American Construction Group is more favorable than Oceanagold.

Profitability

This table compares North American Construction Group and Oceanagold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
North American Construction Group	2.41%	6.23%	1.50%
Oceanagold	35.14%	36.44%	26.57%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.0% of North American Construction Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of North American Construction Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares North American Construction Group and Oceanagold”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
North American Construction Group	$919.14 million	0.40	$24.22 million	$0.79	16.86
Oceanagold	$1.89 billion	3.60	$628.70 million	$1.99	15.38

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

Summary

Oceanagold beats North American Construction Group on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About North American Construction Group

North American Construction Group Ltd. provides mining and heavy civil construction services to customers in the resource development and industrial construction sectors in Australia, Canada, and the United States. The company operates Heavy Equipment – Canada, Heavy Equipment – Australia, and Other segments. It also offers mine management services for thermal coal mines; and construction and operations support services in the Canadian oil sands region. In addition, the company provides fully maintained heavy equipment rentals and full service mine operations support at metallurgical and thermal coal mines; heavy equipment rentals to iron ore, gold and lithium producers; and heavy equipment maintenance, component remanufacturing, and full equipment rebuild services to mining companies and other heavy equipment operators, as well as supplies production-critical components to the mining and construction industry. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a heavy equipment fleet of 900 units. The company was formerly known as North American Energy Partners Inc. and changed its name to North American Construction Group Ltd. in April 2018. North American Construction Group Ltd. was incorporated in 1953 and is headquartered in Acheson, Canada.

About Oceanagold

OceanaGold Corporation is an intermediate gold and copper producer. OceanaGold Corporation is based in VANCOUVER, BC.