Energy Services of America (OTCMKTS:ESOA) versus Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) Financial Review

Energy Services of America (OTCMKTS:ESOA) and Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Energy Services of America and Sterling Infrastructure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Energy Services of America	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sterling Infrastructure	7.85%	25.64%	8.95%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

2.1% of Energy Services of America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.9% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are held by institutional investors. 44.7% of Energy Services of America shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Energy Services of America and Sterling Infrastructure”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Energy Services of America	$352.07 million	N/A	N/A	$0.18	52.95
Sterling Infrastructure	$2.07 billion	2.17	$138.65 million	$4.81	30.28

Sterling Infrastructure has higher revenue and earnings than Energy Services of America. Sterling Infrastructure is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Energy Services of America, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Energy Services of America and Sterling Infrastructure, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Energy Services of America	0	0	0	0	N/A
Sterling Infrastructure	0	1	0	0	2.00

Sterling Infrastructure has a consensus target price of $115.00, suggesting a potential downside of 21.05%. Given Sterling Infrastructure’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sterling Infrastructure is more favorable than Energy Services of America.

Summary

Sterling Infrastructure beats Energy Services of America on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Energy Services of America

Energy Services of America Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides contracting services for utilities and energy related companies in the United States. The company constructs, replaces, and repairs interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines and storage facilities for utility companies and private natural gas companies; and provides services relating to pipeline, storage facilities, and plant works. It also offers electrical and mechanical installation, and repair services, including substation and switchyard, site preparation, equipment setting, pipe fabrication and installation, packaged buildings, transformers, and other ancillary works for the gas, petroleum power, chemical, water and sewer, and automotive industries. In addition, the company provides corrosion protection services, horizontal drilling services, liquid pipeline and pump station construction, production facility construction, water and sewer pipeline installation, and various maintenance and repair services, as well as other services related to pipeline construction. Further, it serves customers primarily in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Energy Services of America Corporation was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Huntington, West Virginia.

About Sterling Infrastructure

Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. engages in the provision of e-infrastructure, transportation, and building solutions primarily in the United States. It operates through three segments: E-Infrastructure Solutions, Transportation Solutions, and Building Solutions. The E-Infrastructure Solutions segment provides site development services for the blue-chip end users in the e-commerce distribution center, data center, manufacturing, warehousing, and power generation sectors. The Transportation Solutions segment is involved in the development of infrastructure and rehabilitation projects for highways, roads, bridges, airports, ports, rail, and storm drainage systems for the departments of transportation in various states, regional transit authorities, airport authorities, port authorities, water authorities, and railroads. The Building Solutions segment provides residential and commercial concrete foundations for single-family and multi-family homes, parking structures, elevated slabs, other concrete work for developers and general contractors, as well as provides plumbing services for residential builds. The company was formerly known as Sterling Construction Company, Inc. and changed its name to Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. in June 2022. Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.