SMWH vs. DPH, HWDN, IGG, CTY, GNS, CAR, PRP, AUK, BAY, and STG
Should you be buying WH Smith stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of WH Smith include Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH), Howden Joinery Group (HWDN), IG Group (IGG), City of London (CTY), Genus (GNS), Carclo (CAR), Prime People (PRP), Aukett Swanke Group (AUK), Bay Capital (BAY), and Strip Tinning (STG). These companies are all part of the "personal services" industry.
WH Smith vs.
WH Smith (LON:SMWH) and Dechra Pharmaceuticals (LON:DPH) are both consumer cyclical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, earnings and analyst recommendations.
WH Smith presently has a consensus price target of GBX 1,456.67, indicating a potential upside of 61.04%. Given WH Smith's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe WH Smith is more favorable than Dechra Pharmaceuticals.
In the previous week, WH Smith had 2 more articles in the media than Dechra Pharmaceuticals. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for WH Smith and 0 mentions for Dechra Pharmaceuticals. WH Smith's average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat Dechra Pharmaceuticals' score of 0.00 indicating that WH Smith is being referred to more favorably in the media.
WH Smith received 137 more outperform votes than Dechra Pharmaceuticals when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 63.00% of users gave Dechra Pharmaceuticals an outperform vote while only 62.55% of users gave WH Smith an outperform vote.
91.2% of WH Smith shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 105.5% of Dechra Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of WH Smith shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.3% of Dechra Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
WH Smith has a net margin of 3.44% compared to Dechra Pharmaceuticals' net margin of -3.66%. WH Smith's return on equity of 17.78% beat Dechra Pharmaceuticals' return on equity.
WH Smith has higher revenue and earnings than Dechra Pharmaceuticals. Dechra Pharmaceuticals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WH Smith, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
WH Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Dechra Pharmaceuticals pays an annual dividend of GBX 45 per share. WH Smith pays out 66.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Dechra Pharmaceuticals pays out -18,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
WH Smith has a beta of 1.67, meaning that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dechra Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
WH Smith beats Dechra Pharmaceuticals on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of LON 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.
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This page (LON:SMWH) was last updated on 4/26/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
