Head-To-Head Comparison: North American Construction Group (NYSE:NOA) & Innovex International (NYSE:INVX)

North American Construction Group (NYSE:NOA) and Innovex International (NYSE:INVX) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.0% of North American Construction Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of North American Construction Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.9% of Innovex International shares are owned 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.

Volatility & Risk

North American Construction Group has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Innovex International has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for North American Construction Group and Innovex International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
North American Construction Group	0	4	0	1	2.40
Innovex International	1	0	1	2	3.00

Innovex International has a consensus target price of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 2.04%. Given Innovex International’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Innovex International is more favorable than North American Construction Group.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares North American Construction Group and Innovex International”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
North American Construction Group	$850.88 million	0.44	$32.17 million	$0.87	14.16
Innovex International	$660.80 million	1.68	$140.32 million	$2.89	5.60

Innovex International has lower revenue, but higher earnings than North American Construction Group. Innovex International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than North American Construction Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares North American Construction Group and Innovex International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
North American Construction Group	2.82%	17.15%	4.16%
Innovex International	16.66%	8.58%	6.92%

Summary

Innovex International beats North American Construction Group on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About North American Construction Group

North American Construction Group Ltd. provides mining and heavy civil construction services to customers in the resource development and industrial construction sectors in Australia, Canada, and the United States. The company operates Heavy Equipment – Canada, Heavy Equipment – Australia, and Other segments. It also offers mine management services for thermal coal mines; and construction and operations support services in the Canadian oil sands region. In addition, the company provides fully maintained heavy equipment rentals and full service mine operations support at metallurgical and thermal coal mines; heavy equipment rentals to iron ore, gold and lithium producers; and heavy equipment maintenance, component remanufacturing, and full equipment rebuild services to mining companies and other heavy equipment operators, as well as supplies production-critical components to the mining and construction industry. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a heavy equipment fleet of 900 units. The company was formerly known as North American Energy Partners Inc. and changed its name to North American Construction Group Ltd. in April 2018. North American Construction Group Ltd. was incorporated in 1953 and is headquartered in Acheson, Canada.

About Innovex International

Innovex International, Inc. engages in the provision of solutions for both onshore and offshore applications within the oil and gas industry. The company was founded on September 15, 2016 and is headquartered in Humble, TX.