ICON Public (ICLR) Competitors

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) and Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, earnings and risk.

Which has more volatility and risk, ICLR or WCN?

ICON Public has a beta of 1.19, suggesting that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Waste Connections has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, ICLR or WCN?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ICON Public	$8.28B	2.02	$612.34M	$9.53	21.32
Waste Connections	$8.92B	5.41	$617.57M	$2.39	78.24

Does the media refer more to ICLR or WCN?

In the previous week, ICON Public had 16 more articles in the media than Waste Connections. MarketBeat recorded 40 mentions for ICON Public and 24 mentions for Waste Connections. Waste Connections' average media sentiment score of 0.35 beat ICON Public's score of 0.07 indicating that Waste Connections is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
ICON Public	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	29 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Waste Connections	9 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	7 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ICLR or WCN?

Waste Connections received 244 more outperform votes than ICON Public when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 75.11% of users gave Waste Connections an outperform vote while only 65.79% of users gave ICON Public an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
ICON Public	Outperform Votes 625 65.79%	Underperform Votes 325 34.21%
Waste Connections	Outperform Votes 869 75.11%	Underperform Votes 288 24.89%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in ICLR or WCN?

95.6% of ICON Public shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.1% of Waste Connections shares are owned by institutional investors. 44.0% of ICON Public shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Waste Connections 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.

Is ICLR or WCN more profitable?

ICON Public has a net margin of 9.56% compared to Waste Connections' net margin of 6.92%. Waste Connections' return on equity of 15.54% beat ICON Public's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ICON Public	9.56%	11.79%	6.63%
Waste Connections	6.92%	15.54%	6.33%

Do analysts rate ICLR or WCN?

ICON Public currently has a consensus target price of $281.00, indicating a potential upside of 38.29%. Waste Connections has a consensus target price of $201.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.50%. Given ICON Public's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ICON Public is more favorable than Waste Connections.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ICON Public	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87
Waste Connections	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.81

Summary

ICON Public beats Waste Connections on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.