Contrasting Reliance (NYSE:RS) and urban-gro (NASDAQ:UGRO)

urban-gro (NASDAQ:UGRO) and Reliance (NYSE:RS) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares urban-gro and Reliance”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
urban-gro	$17.40 million	0.00	-$22.10 million	($27.87)	-0.00
Reliance	$14.29 billion	1.50	$739.40 million	$21.45	19.57

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

Profitability

This table compares urban-gro and Reliance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
urban-gro	-82.11%	-118.44%	-33.76%
Reliance	6.38%	15.31%	10.26%

Risk & Volatility

urban-gro has a beta of -2.91, meaning that its share price is 391% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Reliance has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for urban-gro and Reliance, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
urban-gro	1	0	0	0	1.00
Reliance	1	6	2	1	2.30

Reliance has a consensus price target of $397.43, suggesting a potential downside of 5.32%. Given Reliance’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Reliance is more favorable than urban-gro.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

20.6% of urban-gro shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.3% of Reliance shares are held by institutional investors. 4.4% of urban-gro shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Reliance shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Reliance beats urban-gro on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About urban-gro

urban-gro, Inc. engages in the designing, engineering, building, and integrating complex environmental equipment systems for indoor controlled environment agriculture (CEA) cultivation and retail facilities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company provides architectural design, engineering, and construction services comprising pre-construction, cultivation space programming (CSP), architectural and interior design, engineering, integrated cultivation design, owner's representative/construction management, and general contracting services; and maintenance, training, and support services. It also offers facility and equipment commissioning services; gro-care crop and asset protection services, including training services, equipment maintenance services, asset protection program, and an interactive online operating support system for gro-care and client document delivery and project management; and property condition assessment services. In addition, the company provides integrated equipment systems solutions, such as design, source, and integration of complex environmental equipment systems comprising heating, ventilation, and air conditioning solutions, as well as environmental control, fertigation, irrigation distribution, water treatment, and wastewater reclamation systems; and commercial horticulture lighting solutions, rolling and automated container benching systems, specialty fans, microbial mitigation, and odor reduction systems. Further, it offers value-Added Reselling (VAR) of cultivation equipment systems; and strategic vendor relationships with premier manufacturers. It primarily markets and sells its solutions to clients in the CEA that includes operators and facilitators in the cannabis and produce markets; and commercial sectors comprising food and beverage consumer packaged goods companies, healthcare, higher education, and hospitality. urban-gro, Inc. was founded in 2014 and is based in Lafayette, Colorado.

About Reliance

Reliance, Inc. operates as a diversified metal solutions provider and the metals service center company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company distributes a line of approximately 100,000 metal products, including alloy, aluminum, brass, copper, carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium, and specialty steel products; and provides metals processing services to general manufacturing, non-residential construction, transportation, aerospace, energy, electronics and semiconductor fabrication, and heavy industries. It sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, which primarily include small machine shops and fabricators. The company was formerly known as Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. and changed its name to Reliance, Inc. in February 2024. Reliance, Inc. was founded in 1939 and is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.