Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) vs Waste Connections, Inc. (WCN)

Clean Harbors, Inc. and Waste Connections, Inc. are both Waste Management companies. Waste Connections, Inc. is the larger, with a market value of $48.0B against $14.6B — 3.3× the size. Clean Harbors, Inc. trades at the lower P/E: 28.4× against 42.2×. Clean Harbors, Inc. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 10.1% against 6.30%. Waste Connections, Inc. has the higher net margin (11.4% vs 8.05%) and the lower return on invested capital (6.37% vs 9.84%). Across the 22 metrics below, Clean Harbors, Inc. leads on 16 and Waste Connections, Inc. on 6.

Valuation

Metric CLH WCN Waste Management median
P/E 28.36 42.18 29.62
P/S 2.28 4.77 3.26
P/B 4.80 6.01 1.35
Price to free cash flow 29.33 39.99 29.33
EV/EBITDA 12.87 18.49 17.10
EV/Sales 2.64 5.71 4.50
Earnings yield 3.53% 2.37% (0.64%)
Free cash flow yield 3.41% 2.50% 0.00%

Profitability

Metric CLH WCN Waste Management median
Gross margin 33.13% 42.62% 20.46%
Operating margin 13.17% 17.74% 0.00%
Net margin 8.05% 11.40% 0.00%
Free cash flow margin 7.78% 11.91% 0.00%
Return on equity 17.93% 14.19% 0.00%
Return on assets 6.68% 5.36% 0.00%
Return on invested capital 9.84% 6.37% 0.00%

Growth

Metric CLH WCN Waste Management median
Revenue growth (TTM) 10.09% 6.30% 5.86%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) (1.89%) 74.48% 2.78%
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 13.91% 11.69% 11.16%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 23.73% 39.38% 0.00%

Health

Metric CLH WCN Waste Management median
Debt to equity 0.93 1.21 0.44
Current ratio 1.95 0.67 1.33
Net debt to EBITDA 1.60 3.00 2.03

Dividend

Metric CLH WCN Waste Management median
Dividend yield — 0.76% 0.90%
Payout ratio — 0.32 —

Size

Metric CLH WCN Waste Management median
Market cap 14.64b 47.95b 191.80m

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