Analyzing Bird Construction (OTCMKTS:BIRDF) and Argan (NYSE:AGX)

Bird Construction (OTCMKTS:BIRDF) and Argan (NYSE:AGX) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Bird Construction and Argan, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bird Construction	0	0	3	0	3.00
Argan	0	0	1	0	3.00

Bird Construction currently has a consensus target price of $15.75, suggesting a potential upside of 11.70%. Argan has a consensus target price of $70.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.06%. Given Argan’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Argan is more favorable than Bird Construction.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.3% of Bird Construction shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.4% of Argan shares are held by institutional investors. 11.5% of Argan shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Bird Construction and Argan’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bird Construction	N/A	N/A	N/A
Argan	5.64%	11.37%	6.04%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Bird Construction and Argan’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bird Construction	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.68	20.63
Argan	$573.33 million	1.40	$32.36 million	$2.39	25.46

Argan has higher revenue and earnings than Bird Construction. Bird Construction is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Argan, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Bird Construction pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Argan pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Bird Construction pays out 111.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Argan pays out 50.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Argan has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

Argan beats Bird Construction on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bird Construction

Bird Construction Inc. provides construction services in Canada. The company primarily focuses on projects in the industrial, and institutional, and infrastructure markets. It constructs large, complex industrial buildings, including manufacturing, processing, distribution, and warehouse facilities; and provides electrical and instrumentation, high voltage testing and commissioning services, as well as power line construction, structural, mechanical, and piping, including off-site metal and modular fabrication. It also engages in the civil construction operations, such as site preparation and earthworks, underground piping, utilities and foundation, drilling, blasting, and other concrete services, as well as contract mining, mine support, and greenfield and brownfield hydroelectric facilities; steel modular construction; and civil infrastructure operations comprising road, bridge, rail, and underground utilities installation. In addition, it constructs and retrofits institutional facilities, include healthcare facilities, post-secondary education facilities, K-12 schools, public safety and defence facilities, recreation facilities, transportation, courthouses, government buildings, and long term care and senior housing facilities; offers industrial maintenance, repair, and operations services; and constructs new construction and retrofit of warehousing, laboratories, manufacturing and processing facilities, data centers, office buildings, retail spaces, film studio infrastructure, hotels, and mixed-use mid- to high-rise residential buildings. Further, it offers electrical and related system services, such as electrical and mechanical infrastructure design and installation, data communications, telecommunications, security, and lifecycle services. It serves oil and gas, chemicals, liquefied natural gas, natural resources, nuclear, power, renewable energy, and water and wastewater sectors. The company was founded in 1920 and is based in Mississauga, Canada.

About Argan

Argan, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, maintenance, project development, and technical consulting services to the power generation market. The company operates through Power Services, Industrial Services, and Telecom Services segments. The Power Services segment offers engineering, procurement, and construction, as well as designing, building, and commissioning of large-scale energy projects to the owners of alternative energy facilities, such as biomass plants, wind farms, and solar fields; and design, construction, project management, start-up, and operation services for projects with approximately 18 gigawatts of power-generating capacity. This segment serves independent power project owners, public utilities, power plant equipment suppliers, and other commercial firms. The Industrial Services segment provides industrial construction and field services and vessel fabrication services for fertilizer, engineering and construction, forest products, and various other industrial companies in southeast region of the United States. The Telecom Services segment offers trenchless directional boring and excavation for underground communication and power networks, as well as aerial cabling services; and installs buried cable, high and low voltage electric lines, and private area outdoor lighting systems. It also provides structured cabling, terminations, and connectivity that offers the physical transport for high-speed data, voice, video, and security networks. This segment serves electricity cooperative, state and local government agencies, counties and municipalities, and technology-oriented government contracting firms, as well as federal government facilities in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Argan, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.