Reviewing Orion Group (NYSE:ORN) & Bowman Consulting Group (NASDAQ:BWMN)

Orion Group (NYSE:ORN) and Bowman Consulting Group (NASDAQ:BWMN) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Orion Group has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bowman Consulting Group has a beta of 1.48, indicating that its share price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Orion Group and Bowman Consulting Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Orion Group	2	0	5	0	2.43
Bowman Consulting Group	1	7	0	0	1.88

Orion Group presently has a consensus price target of $14.75, indicating a potential upside of 75.18%. Bowman Consulting Group has a consensus price target of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.23%. Given Orion Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Orion Group is more favorable than Bowman Consulting Group.

Profitability

This table compares Orion Group and Bowman Consulting Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Orion Group	0.62%	3.59%	1.23%
Bowman Consulting Group	1.30%	2.67%	1.20%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.3% of Orion Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.2% of Bowman Consulting Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.7% of Orion Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.5% of Bowman Consulting Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Orion Group and Bowman Consulting Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Orion Group	$927.55 million	0.37	$2.49 million	$0.15	56.13
Bowman Consulting Group	$527.60 million	1.35	$12.85 million	$0.40	107.25

Bowman Consulting Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Orion Group. Orion Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bowman Consulting Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

About Orion Group

Orion Group Holdings, Inc., a leading specialty construction company serving the infrastructure, industrial and building sectors, provides services both on and off the water in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and the Caribbean Basin through its marine segment and its concrete segment. The Company’s marine segment provides construction and dredging services related to marine transportation facility construction, marine pipeline construction, marine environmental structures, dredging of waterways, channels and ports, environmental dredging, design, and specialty services. Its concrete segment provides turnkey concrete construction services including place and finish, site prep, layout, forming, and rebar placement for large commercial, structural and other associated business areas. The Company is headquartered in Houston, Texas with regional offices throughout its operating areas.

About Bowman Consulting Group

Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. provides a range of real estate, energy, infrastructure, and environmental management solutions in the United States. It offers civil and site engineering services, such as conceptual land planning, environmental consulting and permitting, planning/zoning and entitlements, roadway and highway designs, erosion and sediment designs, stormwater management designs, construction administration, traffic studies, floodplain studies, and utility relocation designs; and commissioning and energy efficiency services comprise construction observation, direct systems functional performance testing, system development readiness checklist, post occupancy review, review of construction documents, deferred/seasonal functional testing, final commissioning report, and commissioning review of submittals. The company also provides construction management services, including constructability review, value engineering, budgeting and cost estimating, interagency and utility coordination, onsite observation and report evaluation, public communication and outreach, and resident engineer services, as well as bid solicitation, documentation, and preparation services; and environmental consulting services consisting of wetlands and waters of the U.S. delineations, natural resources inventories, wildlife and vegetation surveys, threatened and endangered species surveys, endangered species conservation and management, wetland creation and enhancement design, NEPA documentation, section 404/401 permitting and compliance, NPDES permitting, and phase I environmental site assessment. In addition, it offers landscape architecture, land procurement and right-of-way acquisition, structural engineering, surveying and geospatial engineering, and transportation and water resources engineering services, as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.