SMWH vs. HWDN, DPH, IGG, CTY, GNS, CAR, PRP, AUK, STG, and BAY
Should you be buying WH Smith stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of WH Smith include Howden Joinery Group (HWDN), Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH), IG Group (IGG), City of London (CTY), Genus (GNS), Carclo (CAR), Prime People (PRP), Aukett Swanke Group (AUK), Strip Tinning (STG), and Bay Capital (BAY). These companies are all part of the "personal services" industry.
WH Smith vs. Its Competitors
WH Smith (LON:SMWH) and Howden Joinery Group (LON:HWDN) are both consumer cyclical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.
Howden Joinery Group has a net margin of 10.82% compared to WH Smith's net margin of 3.44%. Howden Joinery Group's return on equity of 25.70% beat WH Smith's return on equity.
Howden Joinery Group has higher revenue and earnings than WH Smith. Howden Joinery Group 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 2.9%. Howden Joinery Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 21 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. WH Smith pays out 66.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Howden Joinery Group pays out 45.0% 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, suggesting that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Howden Joinery Group has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.
91.2% of WH Smith shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.6% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of WH Smith shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
WH Smith presently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,430, suggesting a potential upside of 31.43%. Howden Joinery Group has a consensus target price of GBX 971.33, suggesting a potential upside of 18.74%. Given WH Smith's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe WH Smith is more favorable than Howden Joinery Group.
In the previous week, Howden Joinery Group had 2 more articles in the media than WH Smith. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Howden Joinery Group and 1 mentions for WH Smith. Howden Joinery Group's average media sentiment score of 0.17 beat WH Smith's score of 0.12 indicating that Howden Joinery Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
WH Smith and Howden Joinery Group tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SMWH and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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.
WH Smith Competitors List
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This page (LON:SMWH) was last updated on 7/8/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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