Analyzing Pentair (NYSE:PNR) & N-Viro International (OTCMKTS:NVIC)

N-Viro International (OTCMKTS:NVIC) and Pentair (NYSE:PNR) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares N-Viro International and Pentair”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
N-Viro International	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Pentair	$4.13 billion	4.18	$625.40 million	$3.94	26.74

Pentair has higher revenue and earnings than N-Viro International.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.4% of Pentair shares are held by institutional investors. 36.1% of N-Viro International shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Pentair shares 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.

Profitability

This table compares N-Viro International and Pentair’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
N-Viro International	N/A	N/A	N/A
Pentair	15.84%	21.83%	12.10%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for N-Viro International and Pentair, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
N-Viro International	0	0	0	0	0.00
Pentair	3	2	11	1	2.59

Pentair has a consensus target price of $117.47, suggesting a potential upside of 11.48%. Given Pentair’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pentair is more favorable than N-Viro International.

Summary

Pentair beats N-Viro International on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About N-Viro International

N-Viro International Corporation markets its N-Viro Fuel technology that produces a renewable alternative fuel product out of certain bio-organic wastes. N-Viro Fuel is a patented biomass alternative energy fuel process that produces a product that has physical and chemical characteristics similar to certain coals and is created from municipal biosolids, collectable animal manure, pulp and paper sludge, and other organic wastes. The company owns and licenses the N-Viro Process, a patented technology to treat and recycle wastewater sludges and other bio-organic wastes, utilizing certain alkaline by-products produced by the cement, lime, and other industries, as well as electric utilities. Its N-Viro Process stabilizes and pasteurizes sludge; reduces odors to acceptable levels; neutralizes or immobilizes various constituents; and generates N-Viro Soil, a product that has a granular appearance similar to soil and is used in various agricultural applications. In addition, the company is involved in the distribution and resale of alkaline admixtures. N-Viro International Corporation was founded in 1979 and is based in Toledo, Ohio.

About Pentair

Pentair plc provides various water solutions in the United States, Western Europe, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, Canada, and Japan. The company operates through three segments: Flow, Water Solutions, and Pool. The Flow segment designs, manufactures, and sells fluid treatment and pump products and systems, including pressure vessels, gas recovery solutions, membrane bioreactors, wastewater reuse systems and advanced membrane filtration, separation systems, water disposal pumps, water supply pumps, fluid transfer pumps, turbine pumps, solid handling pumps, and agricultural spray nozzles for fluid delivery, ion exchange, desalination, food and beverage, separation technologies in the oil and gas industry, residential and municipal wells, water treatment, wastewater solids handling, pressure boosting, circulation and transfer, fire suppression, flood control, agricultural irrigation, and crop spray in residential, commercial, and industrial markets. The Water Solutions segment provides commercial and residential water treatment products and systems, including pressure tanks, control valves, activated carbon products, commercial ice machines, conventional filtration products, and point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment systems, as well as installation and preventative services for use in residential whole home water filtration, drinking water filtration, and water softening solutions, as well as commercial total water management and filtration in foodservice operations. The Pool segment provides residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories comprising pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls, automatic cleaners, maintenance equipment, and pool accessories for applications in residential and commercial pool maintenance, pool repair, renovation, service, and construction and aquaculture solutions. Pentair plc was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.