WSO.B vs. FERG, WSO, CRH, DHI, LEN, URI, OTIS, PWR, MLM, and HWM
Should you be buying Watsco stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Watsco include Ferguson (FERG), Watsco (WSO), CRH (CRH), D.R. Horton (DHI), Lennar (LEN), United Rentals (URI), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), Quanta Services (PWR), Martin Marietta Materials (MLM), and Howmet Aerospace (HWM).
Ferguson (NASDAQ:FERG) and Watsco (NYSE:WSO.B) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and risk.
Ferguson presently has a consensus price target of $221.50, indicating a potential upside of 11.33%. Given Watsco's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Ferguson is more favorable than Watsco.
Watsco received 55 more outperform votes than Ferguson when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.11% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 38.94% of users gave Ferguson an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Ferguson had 29 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 31 mentions for Ferguson and 2 mentions for Watsco. Ferguson's average media sentiment score of 0.58 beat Watsco's score of 0.44 indicating that Watsco is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Ferguson pays an annual dividend of $3.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Watsco pays an annual dividend of $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Ferguson pays out 34.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Watsco pays out 83.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ferguson has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.
82.0% of Ferguson shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of Watsco shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Ferguson shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.8% of Watsco shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Ferguson has higher revenue and earnings than Watsco. Ferguson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Watsco, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Ferguson has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Watsco has a net margin of 7.03% compared to Watsco's net margin of 6.33%. Watsco's return on equity of 36.89% beat Ferguson's return on equity.
Summary
Ferguson and Watsco tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WSO.B and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
WSO.B vs. The Competition
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