Critical Survey: Montrose Environmental Group (NYSE:ONT) and CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW)

CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) and Montrose Environmental Group (NYSE:ONT) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for CoreCivic and Montrose Environmental Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CoreCivic	0	0	4	0	3.00
Montrose Environmental Group	2	3	1	0	1.83

CoreCivic presently has a consensus target price of $39.40, suggesting a potential upside of 11.74%. Montrose Environmental Group has a consensus target price of $19.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.85%. Given CoreCivic’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe CoreCivic is more favorable than Montrose Environmental Group.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

85.1% of CoreCivic shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.9% of Montrose Environmental Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of CoreCivic shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.4% of Montrose Environmental Group shares are owned 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 and Valuation

This table compares CoreCivic and Montrose Environmental Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CoreCivic	$2.21 billion	1.58	$116.50 million	$1.25	28.21
Montrose Environmental Group	$773.34 million	0.82	-$840,000.00	($0.33)	-54.79

CoreCivic has higher revenue and earnings than Montrose Environmental Group. Montrose Environmental Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CoreCivic, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

CoreCivic has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Montrose Environmental Group has a beta of 1.65, indicating that its share price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CoreCivic and Montrose Environmental Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CoreCivic	5.15%	9.22%	3.99%
Montrose Environmental Group	-1.44%	4.11%	1.89%

Summary

CoreCivic beats Montrose Environmental Group on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CoreCivic

CoreCivic, Inc. owns and operates partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities in the United States. It operates through three segments: CoreCivic Safety, CoreCivic Community, and CoreCivic Properties. The company provides a range of solutions to government partners that serve the public good through corrections and detention management, a network of residential reentry centers to help address America’s recidivism crisis, and government real estate solutions. Its correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities offer rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, faith-based services, life skills and employment training, and substance abuse treatment. The company owns and operates correctional and detention facilities, residential reentry centers, and properties for lease. CoreCivic, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee.

About Montrose Environmental Group

Montrose Environmental Group, Inc. operates as an environmental services company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Assessment, Permitting and Response; Measurement and Analysis; and Remediation and Reuse. The Assessment, Permitting and Response segment provides scientific advisory and consulting services to support environmental assessments; environmental emergency response and recovery; toxicology consulting and environmental audits and permits for current operations; facility upgrades; new projects; decommissioning projects; and development projects. This segment also offers technical advisory and consulting services, including regulatory compliance support and planning, environmental, ecosystem and toxicological assessments, and support during responses to environmental disruptions. The Measurement and Analysis segment tests and analyzes air, water, and soil to determine concentrations of contaminants, as well as the toxicological impact of contaminants on flora, fauna, and human health. Its services include source and ambient air testing and monitoring, leak detection, and advanced analytical laboratory services, such as storm water, wastewater, and drinking water analysis. The Remediation and Reuse segment provides engineering, design, implementation, and operations and maintenance services primarily to treat contaminated water, remove contaminants from soil, or create biogas from waste. The company serves financial, oil and gas, utilities, construction, automotive, real-estate, midstream energy, manufacturing, commodities, petrochemical, food and beverage, telecommunications, and engineering industries, as well as local, state, provincial, and federal government entities. Montrose Environmental Group, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas.