WSO.B vs. FERG, WSO, CRH, DHI, URI, LEN, PWR, OTIS, 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), United Rentals (URI), Lennar (LEN), Quanta Services (PWR), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), Martin Marietta Materials (MLM), and Howmet Aerospace (HWM).
Watsco (NYSE:WSO.B) and Ferguson (NASDAQ:FERG) are both large-cap construction companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, community ranking, media sentiment, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.
In the previous week, Ferguson had 23 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for Ferguson and 3 mentions for Watsco. Ferguson's average media sentiment score of 0.40 beat Watsco's score of 0.20 indicating that Ferguson is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
0.1% of Watsco shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.0% of Ferguson shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.8% of Watsco shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Ferguson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Watsco pays an annual dividend of $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Ferguson pays an annual dividend of $3.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. 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 pays out 36.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
Watsco has a net margin of 7.03% compared to Ferguson's net margin of 6.00%. Ferguson's return on equity of 37.99% beat Watsco's return on equity.
Watsco has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ferguson has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Ferguson has a consensus price target of $166.50, suggesting a potential downside of 18.19%. Given Ferguson's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ferguson is more favorable than Watsco.
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.
Watsco received 57 more outperform votes than Ferguson when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.11% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 37.84% of users gave Ferguson an outperform vote.
Summary
Ferguson beats Watsco on 10 of the 19 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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