Critical Comparison: Mueller Industries (NYSE:MLI) and NWPX Infrastructure (NASDAQ:NWPX)

Mueller Industries (NYSE:MLI) and NWPX Infrastructure (NASDAQ:NWPX) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.5% of Mueller Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.6% of NWPX Infrastructure shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Mueller Industries shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.2% of NWPX Infrastructure shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Mueller Industries has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NWPX Infrastructure has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Mueller Industries and NWPX Infrastructure, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mueller Industries	0	0	1	0	3.00
NWPX Infrastructure	0	3	0	0	2.00

Mueller Industries currently has a consensus target price of $105.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.21%. NWPX Infrastructure has a consensus target price of $57.50, suggesting a potential upside of 9.92%. Given Mueller Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Mueller Industries is more favorable than NWPX Infrastructure.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Mueller Industries and NWPX Infrastructure”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mueller Industries	$3.77 billion	2.72	$604.88 million	$6.30	14.72
NWPX Infrastructure	$492.55 million	1.02	$34.21 million	$3.32	15.76

Mueller Industries has higher revenue and earnings than NWPX Infrastructure. Mueller Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NWPX Infrastructure, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Mueller Industries and NWPX Infrastructure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mueller Industries	17.48%	24.47%	20.63%
NWPX Infrastructure	6.69%	8.93%	5.61%

Summary

Mueller Industries beats NWPX Infrastructure on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mueller Industries

Mueller Industries, Inc. manufactures and sells copper, brass, aluminum, and plastic products in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, the Middle East, China, and Mexico. It operates through three segments: Piping Systems, Industrial Metals, and Climate. The Piping Systems segment offers copper tubes, fittings, line sets, and pipe nipples. It also resells steel pipes, brass and plastic plumbing valves, malleable iron fittings and faucets, and plumbing specialties; and supplies water tubes. This segment sells its products to wholesalers in the plumbing and refrigeration markets, distributors to the manufactured housing and recreational vehicle industries, building material retailers, and air-conditioning original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The Industrial Metals segment manufactures brass, bronze, and copper alloy rods; plumbing brass, valves, fittings, and gas assemblies; cold-form aluminum and copper products; machining of aluminum, steel, brass, and cast iron impacts and castings; brass and aluminum forgings; brass, aluminum, and stainless-steel valves; fluid control solutions; and gas train assembles to OEMs in the industrial, construction, HVAC, plumbing, and refrigeration markets. The Climate segment offers valves, protection devices, and brass fittings for various OEMs in the commercial HVAC and refrigeration markets; high-pressure components and accessories for the air-conditioning and refrigeration markets; coaxial heat exchangers and twisted tubes for the HVAC, geothermal, refrigeration, swimming pool heat pump, marine, ice machine, commercial boiler, and heat reclamation markets; and insulated HVAC flexible duct systems. Mueller Industries, Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee.

About NWPX Infrastructure

Northwest Pipe Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and supply of water-related infrastructure products in North America. It operates in two segments, Engineered Steel Pressure Pipe (SPP) and Precast Infrastructure and Engineered Systems (Precast). The SPP segment offers large-diameter and high-pressure steel pipeline systems for use in water infrastructure applications, which are primarily related to drinking water systems. Its products are also used for hydroelectric power systems, wastewater systems, seismic resiliency, and other applications. In addition, this segment makes products for industrial plant piping systems and certain structural applications. The Precast segment provides stormwater and wastewater technology products, precast, and reinforced concrete products, including reinforced concrete pipe, manholes, box culverts, vaults and catch basins, pump lift stations, oil water separators, biofiltration units, steel casing pipes, and bar-wrapped concrete cylinder pipes, as well as pipeline system joints, fittings, specialized components, and other environmental and engineered solutions. The company sells its water infrastructure products under ParkUSA, Geneva Pipe and Precast, Permalok, and Northwest Pipe Company brands primarily to installation contractors. Northwest Pipe Company was incorporated in 1966 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington.