WH Smith (SMWH) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in SMWH or DPLM?

WH Smith received 199 more outperform votes than Diploma when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.63% of users gave WH Smith an outperform vote while only 61.71% of users gave Diploma an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
WH Smith	Outperform Votes 481 62.63%	Underperform Votes 287 37.37%
Diploma	Outperform Votes 282 61.71%	Underperform Votes 175 38.29%

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, SMWH or DPLM?

Diploma has lower revenue, but higher earnings 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
WH Smith	£1.83B	0.65	£63.01M	£48.47	19.19
Diploma	£1.25B	3.97	£115.40M	£87.00	42.76

Do insiders and institutionals believe in SMWH or DPLM?

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

Is SMWH or DPLM 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 17.78% beat Diploma's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WH Smith	3.44%	17.78%	6.62%
Diploma	9.25%	13.18%	8.32%

Do analysts prefer SMWH or DPLM?

WH Smith currently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,456.67, indicating a potential upside of 56.63%. Diploma has a consensus target price of GBX 4,567.50, indicating a potential upside of 22.78%. Given WH Smith's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe WH Smith is more favorable than Diploma.

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

Is SMWH or DPLM a better dividend stock?

WH Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Diploma pays an annual dividend of GBX 57 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. WH Smith pays out 66.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Diploma pays out 65.5% 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.

Which has more volatility and risk, SMWH or DPLM?

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

Does the media favor SMWH or DPLM?

In the previous week, WH Smith and WH Smith both had 3 articles in the media. Diploma's average media sentiment score of 0.38 beat WH Smith's score of -0.13 indicating that Diploma is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

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

Summary

WH Smith beats Diploma on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.