Eagle Materials (EXP) Competitors

Eagle Materials (NYSE:EXP) and Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC) are both large-cap construction companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability and valuation.

Is EXP or VMC more profitable?

Eagle Materials has a net margin of 21.32% compared to Vulcan Materials' net margin of 11.43%. Eagle Materials' return on equity of 35.79% beat Vulcan Materials' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eagle Materials	21.32%	35.79%	16.18%
Vulcan Materials	11.43%	11.88%	6.38%

Do analysts rate EXP or VMC?

Eagle Materials currently has a consensus price target of $303.78, suggesting a potential upside of 0.83%. Vulcan Materials has a consensus price target of $280.46, suggesting a potential upside of 0.42%. Given Eagle Materials' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eagle Materials is more favorable than Vulcan Materials.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eagle Materials	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78
Vulcan Materials	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71

Which has more risk & volatility, EXP or VMC?

Eagle Materials has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vulcan Materials has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of EXP or VMC?

96.1% of Eagle Materials shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of Vulcan Materials shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Eagle Materials shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Vulcan Materials 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in EXP or VMC?

Vulcan Materials received 178 more outperform votes than Eagle Materials when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.86% of users gave Vulcan Materials an outperform vote while only 64.49% of users gave Eagle Materials an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Eagle Materials	Outperform Votes 445 64.49%	Underperform Votes 245 35.51%
Vulcan Materials	Outperform Votes 623 65.86%	Underperform Votes 323 34.14%

Is EXP or VMC a better dividend stock?

Eagle Materials pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Vulcan Materials pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Eagle Materials pays out 7.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Vulcan Materials pays out 29.0% 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. Vulcan Materials has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Vulcan Materials is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media favor EXP or VMC?

In the previous week, Vulcan Materials had 5 more articles in the media than Eagle Materials. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Vulcan Materials and 11 mentions for Eagle Materials. Eagle Materials' average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat Vulcan Materials' score of 1.19 indicating that Eagle Materials is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Eagle Materials	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Vulcan Materials	12 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, EXP or VMC?

Vulcan Materials has higher revenue and earnings than Eagle Materials. Eagle Materials is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vulcan Materials, 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
Eagle Materials	$2.27B	4.46	$477.64M	$14.16	21.28
Vulcan Materials	$7.78B	4.74	$933.20M	$6.34	44.05

Summary

Eagle Materials beats Vulcan Materials on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.