Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN) Competitors

Beacon Roofing Supply (NASDAQ:BECN) and Watsco (NYSE:WSO) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in BECN or WSO?

Beacon Roofing Supply received 115 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.27% of users gave Beacon Roofing Supply an outperform vote while only 55.39% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Beacon Roofing Supply	Outperform Votes 449 60.27%	Underperform Votes 296 39.73%
Watsco	Outperform Votes 334 55.39%	Underperform Votes 269 44.61%

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of BECN or WSO?

98.4% of Beacon Roofing Supply shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Watsco shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Beacon Roofing Supply shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of Watsco 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.

Which has better valuation & earnings, BECN or WSO?

Watsco has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Beacon Roofing Supply. Beacon Roofing Supply is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Watsco, 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
Beacon Roofing Supply	$9.76B	0.78	$435M	$5.70	21.72
Watsco	$7.62B	2.75	$536.34M	$13.25	39.07

Is BECN or WSO more profitable?

Watsco has a net margin of 7.04% compared to Beacon Roofing Supply's net margin of 3.86%. Beacon Roofing Supply's return on equity of 25.32% beat Watsco's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Beacon Roofing Supply	3.86%	25.32%	6.67%
Watsco	7.04%	17.59%	12.09%

Which has more risk and volatility, BECN or WSO?

Beacon Roofing Supply has a beta of 1.63, suggesting that its stock price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer BECN or WSO?

Beacon Roofing Supply currently has a consensus target price of $120.95, suggesting a potential downside of 2.30%. Watsco has a consensus target price of $486.25, suggesting a potential downside of 6.08%. Given Beacon Roofing Supply's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Beacon Roofing Supply is more favorable than Watsco.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Beacon Roofing Supply	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.42
Watsco	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Does the media refer more to BECN or WSO?

In the previous week, Beacon Roofing Supply had 35 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 46 mentions for Beacon Roofing Supply and 11 mentions for Watsco. Watsco's average media sentiment score of 1.39 beat Beacon Roofing Supply's score of 0.50 indicating that Watsco is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Beacon Roofing Supply	11 Very Positive mention(s)	10 Positive mention(s)	18 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Watsco	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Beacon Roofing Supply beats Watsco on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.