Vulcan Materials (VMC) Competitors

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

Does the media refer more to CRH or VMC?

In the previous week, CRH had 25 more articles in the media than Vulcan Materials. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for CRH and 14 mentions for Vulcan Materials. Vulcan Materials' average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat CRH's score of 0.79 indicating that Vulcan Materials is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CRH	21 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	13 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Vulcan Materials	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate CRH or VMC?

CRH presently has a consensus price target of $108.45, suggesting a potential upside of 8.45%. Vulcan Materials has a consensus price target of $304.55, suggesting a potential upside of 27.26%. Given Vulcan Materials' higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Vulcan Materials is more favorable than CRH.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CRH	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Vulcan Materials	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CRH or VMC?

Vulcan Materials received 136 more outperform votes than CRH when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.76% of users gave Vulcan Materials an outperform vote while only 56.84% of users gave CRH an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
CRH	Outperform Votes 490 56.84%	Underperform Votes 372 43.16%
Vulcan Materials	Outperform Votes 626 65.76%	Underperform Votes 326 34.24%

Is CRH or VMC a better dividend stock?

CRH pays an annual dividend of $1.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Vulcan Materials pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. CRH pays out 20.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Vulcan Materials pays out 28.6% 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 raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. CRH is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, CRH or VMC?

CRH has higher revenue and earnings than Vulcan Materials. CRH 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
CRH	$35.57B	1.91	$3.18B	$5.03	19.88
Vulcan Materials	$7.42B	4.26	$933.20M	$6.85	34.94

Is CRH or VMC more profitable?

Vulcan Materials has a net margin of 12.30% compared to CRH's net margin of 9.86%. CRH's return on equity of 16.35% beat Vulcan Materials' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CRH	9.86%	16.35%	7.25%
Vulcan Materials	12.30%	12.83%	6.74%

Which has more volatility and risk, CRH or VMC?

CRH has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its share price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vulcan Materials has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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

62.5% of CRH shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of Vulcan Materials shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Vulcan Materials shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

CRH and Vulcan Materials tied by winning 11 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.