Brookfield Business (NYSE:BBUC) and WSP Global (OTCMKTS:WSPOF) Critical Review

Brookfield Business (NYSE:BBUC) and WSP Global (OTCMKTS:WSPOF) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.0% of Brookfield Business shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Brookfield Business and WSP Global’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Business	1.13%	2.05%	0.40%
WSP Global	5.34%	12.52%	5.34%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Brookfield Business and WSP Global, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Business	1	2	3	0	2.33
WSP Global	0	0	5	0	3.00

Brookfield Business presently has a consensus price target of $39.20, indicating a potential upside of 48.79%. Given Brookfield Business’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield Business is more favorable than WSP Global.

Dividends

Brookfield Business pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. WSP Global pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Brookfield Business pays out -64.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WSP Global pays out 28.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Brookfield Business is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Brookfield Business and WSP Global”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brookfield Business	$27.46 billion	0.20	-$26.00 million	($0.39)	-67.55
WSP Global	$13.09 billion	1.35	$690.15 million	$3.69	35.50

WSP Global has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Brookfield Business. Brookfield Business is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WSP Global, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

WSP Global beats Brookfield Business on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brookfield Business

Brookfield Business Corporation focuses on healthcare, construction, and wastewater services in the United States, Europe, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Brazil. It operates through three segments: Business Services, Infrastructure Services, and Industrials. The company operates 42 hospitals; offers construction services for office, residential, hospitality and leisure, social infrastructure, retail, and mixed-use properties; and provides nuclear technology services, such as fuel, maintenance services, engineering solutions, instrumentation and control systems, and manufactured components for nuclear power plants. It also engages in the collection, treatment, and distribution of water and wastewater to the residential and governmental customers. The company was incorporated in 2021 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About WSP Global

WSP Global Inc. operates as a professional services consulting firm in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, and internationally. It advises, plans, designs, and manages projects for rail, transit, aviation, highways, bridges, tunnels, water, maritime, and urban infrastructure for public and private clients, construction contractors, and other partners. The company also provides engineering and consultancy services, such as decarbonization strategies, digital building design to building engineering design, and project management services. In addition, it works with and advises governments and private sector in earth sciences and environmental sustainability to conduct due diligence, permit approvals, regulatory compliance, waste/hazardous materials management, geotechnical and mining engineering, environmental/ social impact assessments, feasibility, and land remediation studies. Further, the company offers energy clients support, including large-scale power plants, renewables clean energy investments, smaller on-site power generation and efficiency programs, energy transmission, storage and distribution from pre-feasibility studies and community engagement through operation and decommissioning; and provides siting and licensing, procurement, construction management, engineering, process design, and productivity analysis to food and beverage, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, aerospace, automotive, technology, and chemicals industries, as well as operation, maintenance, and decommissioning services during the facility’s active life. Additionally, it offers strategic advisory services comprising planning and advisory, management, and technology and sustainability services. The company was formerly known as GENIVAR Inc. and changed its name to WSP Global Inc. in January 2014. WSP Global Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.