Contrasting Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) and Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN)

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) and Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.1% of Geo Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.1% of Waste Connections shares are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of Geo Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Waste Connections shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Geo Group has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Waste Connections has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Geo Group and Waste Connections, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Geo Group	0	1	4	1	3.00
Waste Connections	0	3	14	1	2.89

Geo Group presently has a consensus target price of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 43.21%. Waste Connections has a consensus target price of $198.61, suggesting a potential upside of 17.24%. Given Geo Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Geo Group is more favorable than Waste Connections.

Profitability

This table compares Geo Group and Waste Connections’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Geo Group	10.31%	10.42%	4.14%
Waste Connections	10.86%	17.31%	6.62%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Geo Group and Waste Connections”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Geo Group	$2.63 billion	1.40	$254.37 million	$2.12	13.17
Waste Connections	$9.76 billion	4.35	$1.08 billion	$4.15	40.82

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

Summary

Waste Connections beats Geo Group on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Geo Group

The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE: GEO) engages in ownership, leasing, and management of secure facilities, processing centers, and community-based reentry facilities in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The company also provides secure facility management services, including the provision of security, administrative, rehabilitation, education, and food services; reentry services, such as temporary housing, programming, employment assistance, and other services; electronic monitoring and supervision services; and transportation services; as well as designs, constructs, and finances new facilities through projects. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Boca Raton, Florida.

About Waste Connections

Waste Connections, Inc. provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals. The company owns and operates transfer stations that receive compact and/or load waste to be transported to landfills or treatment facilities through truck, rail, or barge; and intermodal services for the rail haul movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest through a network of intermodal facilities. In addition, it provides E&P waste treatment, recovery, and disposal services for waste resulting from oil and natural gas exploration and production activity, such as drilling fluids, drill cuttings, completion fluids, and flowback water; production wastes and produced water during a well's operating life; contaminated soils that require treatment during site reclamation; and substances, which require clean-up after a spill, reserve pit clean-up, or pipeline rupture. Further, the company offers leasing services to its customers. Waste Connections, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Woodbridge, Canada.