Contrasting Global Water Resources (NASDAQ:GWRS) & Veolia Environnement (OTCMKTS:VEOEY)

Global Water Resources (NASDAQ:GWRS) and Veolia Environnement (OTCMKTS:VEOEY) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Global Water Resources and Veolia Environnement, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Water Resources	0	1	0	0	2.00
Veolia Environnement	1	1	0	1	2.33

Profitability

This table compares Global Water Resources and Veolia Environnement’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Water Resources	10.27%	9.67%	1.42%
Veolia Environnement	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

27.9% of Global Water Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of Veolia Environnement shares are owned by institutional investors. 54.3% of Global Water Resources shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Veolia Environnement shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Global Water Resources pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Veolia Environnement pays an annual dividend of $0.53 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Global Water Resources pays out 136.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Global Water Resources has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Volatility and Risk

Global Water Resources has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veolia Environnement has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Global Water Resources and Veolia Environnement”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Water Resources	$52.69 million	5.53	$5.79 million	$0.22	48.23
Veolia Environnement	$48.37 billion	0.50	$1.19 billion	N/A	N/A

Veolia Environnement has higher revenue and earnings than Global Water Resources.

About Global Water Resources

Global Water Resources, Inc., a water resource management company, owns, operates, and manages regulated water, wastewater, and recycled water systems primarily in metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. It serves approximately 82,000 people in approximately 32,000 homes. The company was founded in 2003 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona.

About Veolia Environnement

Veolia Environnement SA designs and provides water, waste, and energy management solutions worldwide. It operates through France and Special Waste Europe; Europe excluding France; Rest of the World; Water Technologies; and Other segments. The company is involved in resource management; customer relationship management; drinking water treatment and distribution; wastewater treatment; design and construction of treatment and network infrastructure; and sale of water treatment equipment, technologies, and facilities. It provides waste collection, product recovery and waste-to-energy processing, including sale of recycled products; dismantling and remediation; hazardous waste processing; urban cleaning; and industrial maintenance and cleaning services. In addition, the company engages in the operation and maintenance of heating and cooling networks; optimization of industrial utilities, such as steam generation, cooling, electricity, compressed air; installation and maintenance of production equipment; development of energy services to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions of buildings; integrated services for building management, and the production of electricity from biomass, as well as provides thermal and multi-technical services. It serves industrial and service sector companies, public authorities, and individuals. The company was formerly known as Vivendi Environnement and changed its name to Veolia Environnement SA in January 2003. Veolia Environnement SA was founded in 1853 and is headquartered in Paris, France.