DS Smith (SMDS) Competitors

DS Smith (LON:SMDS) and Smurfit Kappa Group (LON:SKG) are both mid-cap consumer cyclical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, community ranking, risk and valuation.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in SMDS or SKG?

88.1% of DS Smith shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.8% of Smurfit Kappa Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.1% of DS Smith shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Smurfit Kappa Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, SMDS or SKG?

DS Smith has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Smurfit Kappa Group has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, SMDS or SKG?

Smurfit Kappa Group has higher revenue and earnings than DS Smith. Smurfit Kappa Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than DS Smith, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DS Smith	£6.82B	1.09	£385M	£0.28	1,921.43
Smurfit Kappa Group	£11.27B	0.85	£758M	£2.48	1,474.19

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SMDS or SKG?

DS Smith received 426 more outperform votes than Smurfit Kappa Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 72.62% of users gave Smurfit Kappa Group an outperform vote while only 67.06% of users gave DS Smith an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
DS Smith	Outperform Votes 678 67.06%	Underperform Votes 333 32.94%
Smurfit Kappa Group	Outperform Votes 252 72.62%	Underperform Votes 95 27.38%

Is SMDS or SKG a better dividend stock?

DS Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 18 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Smurfit Kappa Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 131 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. DS Smith pays out 6,428.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Smurfit Kappa Group pays out 5,282.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Smurfit Kappa Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend SMDS or SKG?

DS Smith currently has a consensus price target of GBX 481.67, indicating a potential downside of 10.47%. Smurfit Kappa Group has a consensus price target of GBX 4,200, indicating a potential upside of 14.88%. Given Smurfit Kappa Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Smurfit Kappa Group is more favorable than DS Smith.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DS Smith	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Smurfit Kappa Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is SMDS or SKG more profitable?

Smurfit Kappa Group has a net margin of 6.72% compared to DS Smith's net margin of 5.64%. Smurfit Kappa Group's return on equity of 14.31% beat DS Smith's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DS Smith	5.64%	9.58%	4.02%
Smurfit Kappa Group	6.72%	14.31%	6.89%

Does the media prefer SMDS or SKG?

In the previous week, DS Smith had 2 more articles in the media than Smurfit Kappa Group. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for DS Smith and 0 mentions for Smurfit Kappa Group. DS Smith's average media sentiment score of 0.10 beat Smurfit Kappa Group's score of 0.00 indicating that DS Smith is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
DS Smith	Neutral
Smurfit Kappa Group	Neutral

Summary

Smurfit Kappa Group beats DS Smith on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.