WH Smith (SMWH) Competitors

Diploma (LON:DPLM) and WH Smith (LON:SMWH) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and community ranking.

Is DPLM or SMWH more profitable?

Diploma has a net margin of 9.25% compared to WH Smith's net margin of 3.44%. WH Smith's return on equity of 22.29% beat Diploma's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Diploma	9.25%	13.39%	8.32%
WH Smith	3.44%	22.29%	6.62%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor DPLM or SMWH?

WH Smith received 198 more outperform votes than Diploma when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.58% of users gave WH Smith an outperform vote while only 61.71% of users gave Diploma an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Diploma	Outperform Votes 282 61.71%	Underperform Votes 175 38.29%
WH Smith	Outperform Votes 480 62.58%	Underperform Votes 287 37.42%

Does the media favor DPLM or SMWH?

In the previous week, WH Smith had 10 more articles in the media than Diploma. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for WH Smith and 1 mentions for Diploma. WH Smith's average media sentiment score of 0.33 beat Diploma's score of 0.17 indicating that WH Smith is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Diploma	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
WH Smith	3 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do analysts rate DPLM or SMWH?

Diploma presently has a consensus target price of GBX 4,567.50, indicating a potential upside of 0.34%. WH Smith has a consensus target price of GBX 1,456.67, indicating a potential upside of 11.45%. Given WH Smith's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe WH Smith is more favorable than Diploma.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Diploma	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60
WH Smith	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, DPLM or SMWH?

Diploma has higher earnings, but lower revenue than WH Smith. WH Smith is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Diploma, 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
Diploma	£1.26B	4.84	£116.10M	£0.86	5,293.02
WH Smith	£1.86B	0.92	£64M	£0.49	2,667.35

Which has more risk & volatility, DPLM or SMWH?

Diploma has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WH Smith has a beta of 1.67, meaning that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in DPLM or SMWH?

81.5% of Diploma shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.2% of WH Smith shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Diploma shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of WH Smith shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is DPLM or SMWH a better dividend stock?

Diploma pays an annual dividend of GBX 57 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. WH Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Diploma pays out 6,627.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. WH Smith pays out 6,530.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. WH Smith is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

WH Smith beats Diploma on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.