Head-To-Head Survey: Amentum (NYSE:AMTM) versus Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL)

Amentum (NYSE:AMTM) and Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) are both construction companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Amentum and Sterling Infrastructure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amentum	0.41%	10.90%	4.18%
Sterling Infrastructure	13.33%	27.93%	11.18%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

39.9% of Amentum shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.0% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.7% of Amentum shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Sterling Infrastructure shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Amentum and Sterling Infrastructure”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amentum	$8.39 billion	0.65	-$82.00 million	$0.39	57.15
Sterling Infrastructure	$2.12 billion	5.18	$257.46 million	$9.20	39.16

Sterling Infrastructure has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Amentum. Sterling Infrastructure is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amentum, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Amentum and Sterling Infrastructure, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amentum	1	4	5	0	2.40
Sterling Infrastructure	0	0	2	1	3.33

Amentum presently has a consensus target price of $27.40, indicating a potential upside of 22.93%. Sterling Infrastructure has a consensus target price of $355.00, indicating a potential downside of 1.46%. Given Amentum’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Amentum is more favorable than Sterling Infrastructure.

Summary

Sterling Infrastructure beats Amentum on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Amentum

Amentum Holdings, Inc. provides engineering and technology solutions to address challenges in science, security, and sustainability. It serves various markets, such as energy and environment, space, intelligence, defense, civilian, commercial, and international markets. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquatered in Chantilly, Virginia.

About Sterling Infrastructure

Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. engages in the provision of e-infrastructure, transportation, and building solutions primarily in the United States. It operates through three segments: E-Infrastructure Solutions, Transportation Solutions, and Building Solutions. The E-Infrastructure Solutions segment provides site development services for the blue-chip end users in the e-commerce distribution center, data center, manufacturing, warehousing, and power generation sectors. The Transportation Solutions segment is involved in the development of infrastructure and rehabilitation projects for highways, roads, bridges, airports, ports, rail, and storm drainage systems for the departments of transportation in various states, regional transit authorities, airport authorities, port authorities, water authorities, and railroads. The Building Solutions segment provides residential and commercial concrete foundations for single-family and multi-family homes, parking structures, elevated slabs, other concrete work for developers and general contractors, as well as provides plumbing services for residential builds. The company was formerly known as Sterling Construction Company, Inc. and changed its name to Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. in June 2022. Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.