Critical Comparison: ALS (CPBLF) and The Competition

ALS (OTCMKTS:CPBLF) is one of 205 public companies in the “Professional Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare ALS to similar companies based on the strength of its valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends and risk.

Profitability

This table compares ALS and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ALS	N/A	N/A	N/A
ALS Competitors	2.02%	22.68%	4.73%

Dividends

ALS pays an annual dividend of $0.39 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. ALS pays out 134.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Professional Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.6% and pay out -160.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. ALS lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for ALS and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ALS	0	0	1	0	3.00
ALS Competitors	1481	6321	9084	480	2.49

ALS presently has a consensus target price of $28.00, indicating a potential upside of 77.50%. As a group, “Professional Services” companies have a potential upside of 35.00%. Given ALS’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe ALS is more favorable than its peers.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ALS and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
ALS	N/A	N/A	54.57
ALS Competitors	$3.32 billion	$224.60 million	34.45

ALS’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than ALS. ALS is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

23.2% of ALS shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.6% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 17.0% of shares of all “Professional Services” companies are held by 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.

Summary

ALS peers beat ALS on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

About ALS

ALS Limited provides professional technical services primarily in the areas of testing, measurement, and inspection in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. It operates in two segments, Commodities and Life Sciences. The Commodities segment offers assaying and analytical testing, and metallurgical services for the mining and mineral exploration companies. Its testing and consulting services cover the resource life cycle, including exploration, feasibility, optimization, production, design, development, trade, and rehabilitation. This segment also provides coal sampling, analysis and certification, formation evaluation, and related analytical testing services. The Life Sciences segment offers analytical testing and sampling, and remote monitoring services for the environmental, food, pharmaceutical, and consumer products markets; and microbiological, physical, and chemical testing services. This segment provides analytical testing data to assist consulting and engineering firms, industries, and governments. ALS Limited was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.