Contrasting Bowman Consulting Group (NASDAQ:BWMN) and Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN)

Bowman Consulting Group (NASDAQ:BWMN) and Atlantic International (NASDAQ:ATLN) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Bowman Consulting Group and Atlantic International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bowman Consulting Group	1	2	3	0	2.33
Atlantic International	1	1	0	1	2.33

Bowman Consulting Group presently has a consensus price target of $47.50, suggesting a potential upside of 49.70%. Given Bowman Consulting Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Bowman Consulting Group is more favorable than Atlantic International.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Bowman Consulting Group and Atlantic International”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bowman Consulting Group	$490.02 million	1.13	$12.85 million	$0.60	52.88
Atlantic International	$435.88 million	0.26	-$59.43 million	($1.09)	-1.30

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

63.2% of Bowman Consulting Group shares are held by institutional investors. 17.5% of Bowman Consulting Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.6% of Atlantic International 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.

Profitability

This table compares Bowman Consulting Group and Atlantic International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bowman Consulting Group	2.02%	3.98%	1.84%
Atlantic International	-13.64%	N/A	-54.43%

Volatility & Risk

Bowman Consulting Group has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atlantic International has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Bowman Consulting Group beats Atlantic International on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bowman Consulting Group

Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. provides a range of real estate, energy, infrastructure, and environmental management solutions in the United States. It offers civil and site engineering services, such as conceptual land planning, environmental consulting and permitting, planning/zoning and entitlements, roadway and highway designs, erosion and sediment designs, stormwater management designs, construction administration, traffic studies, floodplain studies, and utility relocation designs; and commissioning and energy efficiency services comprise construction observation, direct systems functional performance testing, system development readiness checklist, post occupancy review, review of construction documents, deferred/seasonal functional testing, final commissioning report, and commissioning review of submittals. The company also provides construction management services, including constructability review, value engineering, budgeting and cost estimating, interagency and utility coordination, onsite observation and report evaluation, public communication and outreach, and resident engineer services, as well as bid solicitation, documentation, and preparation services; and environmental consulting services consisting of wetlands and waters of the U.S. delineations, natural resources inventories, wildlife and vegetation surveys, threatened and endangered species surveys, endangered species conservation and management, wetland creation and enhancement design, NEPA documentation, section 404/401 permitting and compliance, NPDES permitting, and phase I environmental site assessment. In addition, it offers landscape architecture, land procurement and right-of-way acquisition, structural engineering, surveying and geospatial engineering, and transportation and water resources engineering services, as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

About Atlantic International

Atlantic International Corp. engages in the design, development, and manufacture of genetic analysis technologies. Its services include RNA sequencing and DNA sequencing. The company was founded by William C. St. Laurent and Daniel R. Jones in 2013 and is headquartered in Billercia, MA.