Comparing Knife River (NYSE:KNF) & Arcosa (NYSE:ACA)

Arcosa (NYSE:ACA) and Knife River (NYSE:KNF) are both mid-cap construction companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

Arcosa has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Knife River has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Arcosa and Knife River, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Arcosa	0	1	4	0	2.80
Knife River	0	1	6	0	2.86

Arcosa presently has a consensus price target of $115.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.07%. Knife River has a consensus price target of $99.00, indicating a potential upside of 40.11%. Given Knife River’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Knife River is more favorable than Arcosa.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Arcosa and Knife River”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Arcosa	$2.57 billion	1.96	$93.70 million	$3.02	33.98
Knife River	$2.90 billion	1.38	$201.68 million	$2.61	27.07

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

Profitability

This table compares Arcosa and Knife River’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Arcosa	5.25%	7.46%	3.74%
Knife River	4.87%	9.97%	4.41%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.7% of Arcosa shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.1% of Knife River shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Arcosa shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Knife River shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

About Arcosa

Arcosa, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides infrastructure-related products and solutions for the construction, engineered structures, and transportation markets in the United States. It operates through three segments: Construction Products, Engineered Structures, and Transportation Products. The Construction Products segment offers natural and recycled aggregates; specialty materials; and construction site support equipment, including trench shields and shoring products for residential and non-residential construction, and specialty/other products, as well as for infrastructure construction. The Engineered Structures segment offers utility structures, wind towers, traffic structures, and telecommunication structures for electricity transmission and distribution, wind power generation, highway road construction, and wireless communication markets. The Transportation Products segment offers inland barges, fiberglass barge covers, winches, marine hardware, and steel components for railcars and transportation equipment; cast components for industrial and mining sectors; and axles, circular forgings, and coupling devices for freight, tank, locomotive, and passenger rail transportation equipment, as well as other industrial uses. Arcosa, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

About Knife River

Knife River Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides aggregates- led construction materials and contracting services in the United States. It operates through Pacific, Northwest, Mountain, Central, and Energy Services segments. The company mines, processes, and sells construction aggregates, including crushed stone and sand, and gravel; and produces and sells asphalt and ready-mix concrete. It also provides contracting service, such as heavy-civil construction, asphalt and concrete paving, and site development and grading. In addition, the company sells cement, merchandise, and other building materials and related services. The company sells its construction materials to public and private-sector customers, including federal, state, and municipal governments, as well as industrial, commercial and residential developers, and other private parties; and provides its contracting services to public-sector customers for the development and servicing of highways, local roads, bridges, and other public-infrastructure projects. Knife River Corporation was founded in 1917 and is based in Bismarck, North Dakota.