Stella-Jones (SJ) Competitors

Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) and Stantec (TSE:STN) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, community ranking, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in SJ or STN?

Stantec received 39 more outperform votes than Stella-Jones when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 63.33% of users gave Stella-Jones an outperform vote while only 51.31% of users gave Stantec an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Stella-Jones	Outperform Votes 411 63.33%	Underperform Votes 238 36.67%
Stantec	Outperform Votes 450 51.31%	Underperform Votes 427 48.69%

Which has more volatility & risk, SJ or STN?

Stella-Jones has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stantec has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate SJ or STN?

Stella-Jones currently has a consensus target price of C$88.00, indicating a potential upside of 27.41%. Stantec has a consensus target price of C$126.36, indicating a potential upside of 7.43%. Given Stella-Jones' higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Stella-Jones is more favorable than Stantec.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stella-Jones	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Stantec	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of SJ or STN?

63.6% of Stella-Jones shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.5% of Stantec shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Stella-Jones shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Stantec shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is SJ or STN a better dividend stock?

Stella-Jones pays an annual dividend of C$1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Stantec pays an annual dividend of C$0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Stella-Jones pays out 18.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Stantec pays out 27.6% 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. Stella-Jones is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media refer more to SJ or STN?

In the previous week, Stantec had 3 more articles in the media than Stella-Jones. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Stantec and 7 mentions for Stella-Jones. Stella-Jones' average media sentiment score of 1.16 beat Stantec's score of 0.29 indicating that Stella-Jones is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Stella-Jones	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Stantec	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has higher earnings and valuation, SJ or STN?

Stella-Jones has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Stantec. Stella-Jones is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stantec, 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
Stella-Jones	C$3.46B	1.12	C$353M	C$6.19	11.16
Stantec	C$5.42B	2.48	C$342.30M	C$3.04	38.69

Is SJ or STN more profitable?

Stella-Jones has a net margin of 10.20% compared to Stantec's net margin of 6.31%. Stella-Jones' return on equity of 20.64% beat Stantec's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stella-Jones	10.20%	20.64%	9.38%
Stantec	6.31%	12.91%	5.70%

Summary

Stantec beats Stella-Jones on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.