Reviewing TSS (NASDAQ:TSSI) and Vesuvius (OTCMKTS:CKSNY)

TSS (NASDAQ:TSSI) and Vesuvius (OTCMKTS:CKSNY) are both small-cap construction companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for TSS and Vesuvius, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TSS	0	2	2	0	2.50
Vesuvius	0	0	0	0	0.00

TSS presently has a consensus price target of $17.17, suggesting a potential upside of 13.76%. Given TSS’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe TSS is more favorable than Vesuvius.

Profitability

This table compares TSS and Vesuvius’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TSS	6.16%	38.06%	10.03%
Vesuvius	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares TSS and Vesuvius”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TSS	$245.72 million	1.77	$15.12 million	$0.53	28.47
Vesuvius	$2.39 billion	0.60	$68.84 million	N/A	N/A

Vesuvius has higher revenue and earnings than TSS.

Risk and Volatility

TSS has a beta of 2.04, suggesting that its stock price is 104% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vesuvius has a beta of -0.2, suggesting that its stock price is 120% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TSS beats Vesuvius on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TSS

TSS, Inc. offers planning, design, engineering, construction management, commissioning and maintenance services. It provides these services primarily for specialized facilities such as data centers, communications rooms, call centers, laboratories, trading floors, network operations centers, medical facilities and similar environments. TSS Inc., formerly known as Fortress International Group, Inc., is based in Columbia, United States.

About Vesuvius

Vesuvius plc is engaged in molten metal flow engineering, principally serving the steel and foundry industries. It develops and manufactures high-technology products and solutions for supply to the steel and casting industries. The Company operates through two segments: Steel and Foundry. The Steel division consists of various product lines, such as Steel Flow Control, Advanced Refractories and Technical Services. Its solution is a fully integrated robotic spray application system with a coupled mixing and laser setting system for the accurate location of the tundish furniture and mix preparation. The automatic robotic mixing and application system is fully contained and shielded with automatic shutdown if someone enters the working zone inside the tundish stand. Its technology allows robots to handle various tasks, such as manipulating steel samplers and temperature or hydrogen sensors, and to distribute powder into the tundish.