Analyzing Advanced Emissions Solutions (ADES) & Abtech Holdings (ABHD)

Advanced Emissions Solutions (NASDAQ: ADES) and Abtech Holdings (OTCMKTS:ABHD) are both small-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

70.4% of Advanced Emissions Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of Abtech Holdings shares are held by institutional investors. 8.5% of Advanced Emissions Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Abtech Holdings shares are held by company insiders. 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.

Dividends

Advanced Emissions Solutions pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. Abtech Holdings does not pay a dividend. Advanced Emissions Solutions pays out 22.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Advanced Emissions Solutions and Abtech Holdings’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Advanced Emissions Solutions	192.72%	66.67%	45.15%
Abtech Holdings	-870.93%	N/A	-593.85%

Volatility & Risk

Advanced Emissions Solutions has a beta of 2.85, indicating that its stock price is 185% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Abtech Holdings has a beta of -3.72, indicating that its stock price is 472% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Advanced Emissions Solutions and Abtech Holdings, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Advanced Emissions Solutions	0	0	2	0	3.00
Abtech Holdings	0	0	0	0	N/A

Advanced Emissions Solutions currently has a consensus target price of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 73.24%. Given Advanced Emissions Solutions’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Advanced Emissions Solutions is more favorable than Abtech Holdings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Advanced Emissions Solutions and Abtech Holdings’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Advanced Emissions Solutions	$52.19 million	4.14	-$11.99 million	$4.50	2.31
Abtech Holdings	$397,902.00	20.17	-$3.69 million	N/A	N/A

Abtech Holdings has higher revenue, but lower earnings than Advanced Emissions Solutions.

Summary

Advanced Emissions Solutions beats Abtech Holdings on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Advanced Emissions Solutions

ADA-ES, Inc. (ADA) develops, offers, and implements environmental technologies and provides equipment and specialty chemicals that enable coal-fueled power plants to meet emissions regulations by enhancing existing air pollution control equipment. ADA’s wholly owned subsidiaries include Advanced Emissions Solutions, Inc., ADA Intellectual Property, LLC and ADA Environmental Solutions, LLC. ADA holds a 42.5% controlling interest in Clean Coal Solutions, LLC. It operates in three segments: Refined coal (RC), Emission control (EC) and CO2 capture (CC). ADA is a supplier of mercury control equipment and services to the EC markets. It also offers dry sorbent injection systems (DSI) to control SO2 and acid gases. Products, such as the Company’s CyCleanTM and M-45TM technologies, its pre-combustion coal treatment processes that provide electric power generators mercury emission control. In September 2012, it acquired the assets of Bulk Conveyor Specialist Inc. and Bulk Conveyor Services, Inc.

About Abtech Holdings

Abtech Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, AbTech Industries, Inc. (AbTech Industries), provides solutions to water contamination issues that are caused by stormwater runoff, industrial processes, water produced in the extractive industries, such as oil and gas drilling, and spills of oil-based fluids in marine environments. The Company operates through the filtration and treatment of polluted water segment. It provides services for the design and selection of water treatment systems, products sales of filtration and treatment systems, installation of the treatment technologies and maintenance of the installed systems. These activities are provided through subcontractors and on some projects the Company may act as a subcontractor to other entities. AbTech Industries has developed a range of products that leverage its cornerstone filtration media technology called Smart Sponge. The technology can be used as a filtration media to remove hydrocarbons and other pollutants from water.