Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) Competitors

Spire Healthcare Group (LON:SPI) and Empiric Student Property (LON:ESP) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, SPI or ESP?

Empiric Student Property has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Spire Healthcare Group. Empiric Student Property is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Spire Healthcare Group, 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
Spire Healthcare Group	£1.44B	0.50	£28.15M	£7.03	25.50
Empiric Student Property	£89.58M	6.29	£58.84M	£8.90	9.56

Do analysts prefer SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group currently has a consensus target price of GBX 314.67, suggesting a potential upside of 75.61%. Given Spire Healthcare Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Spire Healthcare Group is more favorable than Empiric Student Property.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Spire Healthcare Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Empiric Student Property	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Is SPI or ESP a better dividend stock?

Spire Healthcare Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 3 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Empiric Student Property pays an annual dividend of GBX 4 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Spire Healthcare Group pays out 42.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Empiric Student Property pays out 44.9% 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.

Is SPI or ESP more profitable?

Empiric Student Property has a net margin of 65.69% compared to Spire Healthcare Group's net margin of 1.96%. Empiric Student Property's return on equity of 7.23% beat Spire Healthcare Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Spire Healthcare Group	1.96%	3.82%	3.73%
Empiric Student Property	65.69%	7.23%	2.26%

Does the media refer more to SPI or ESP?

In the previous week, Spire Healthcare Group had 2 more articles in the media than Empiric Student Property. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Spire Healthcare Group and 2 mentions for Empiric Student Property. Empiric Student Property's average media sentiment score of 0.88 beat Spire Healthcare Group's score of 0.10 indicating that Empiric Student Property is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Spire Healthcare Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Empiric Student Property	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group received 189 more outperform votes than Empiric Student Property when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.80% of users gave Empiric Student Property an outperform vote while only 60.96% of users gave Spire Healthcare Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Spire Healthcare Group	Outperform Votes 356 60.96%	Underperform Votes 228 39.04%
Empiric Student Property	Outperform Votes 167 66.80%	Underperform Votes 83 33.20%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in SPI or ESP?

50.4% of Spire Healthcare Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.4% of Empiric Student Property shares are owned by institutional investors. 34.7% of Spire Healthcare Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Empiric Student Property shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Empiric Student Property has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Spire Healthcare Group and Empiric Student Property tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.