Central Garden & Pet (CENTA) Competitors

Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ:CENTA) and WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) are both mid-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings, profitability and community ranking.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, CENTA or WDFC?

Central Garden & Pet has higher revenue and earnings than WD-40. Central Garden & Pet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WD-40, 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
Central Garden & Pet	$3.22B	0.63	$107.98M	$1.82	16.98
WD-40	$603.64M	5.25	$69.64M	$5.22	44.83

Which has more risk & volatility, CENTA or WDFC?

Central Garden & Pet has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WD-40 has a beta of -0.1, meaning that its stock price is 110% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CENTA or WDFC more profitable?

WD-40 has a net margin of 11.78% compared to Central Garden & Pet's net margin of 3.77%. WD-40's return on equity of 31.68% beat Central Garden & Pet's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Central Garden & Pet	3.77%	10.08%	4.38%
WD-40	11.78%	31.68%	15.93%

Do analysts rate CENTA or WDFC?

Central Garden & Pet currently has a consensus target price of $41.00, suggesting a potential upside of 32.69%. WD-40 has a consensus target price of $301.00, suggesting a potential upside of 28.63%. Given Central Garden & Pet's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Central Garden & Pet is more favorable than WD-40.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Central Garden & Pet	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
WD-40	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the MarketBeat Community favor CENTA or WDFC?

WD-40 received 98 more outperform votes than Central Garden & Pet when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 62.80% of users gave Central Garden & Pet an outperform vote while only 53.51% of users gave WD-40 an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Central Garden & Pet	Outperform Votes 184 62.80%	Underperform Votes 109 37.20%
WD-40	Outperform Votes 282 53.51%	Underperform Votes 245 46.49%

Does the media favor CENTA or WDFC?

In the previous week, WD-40 had 3 more articles in the media than Central Garden & Pet. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for WD-40 and 7 mentions for Central Garden & Pet. WD-40's average media sentiment score of 1.34 beat Central Garden & Pet's score of 1.22 indicating that WD-40 is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Central Garden & Pet	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
WD-40	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of CENTA or WDFC?

50.8% of Central Garden & Pet shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.5% of WD-40 shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.3% of Central Garden & Pet shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of WD-40 shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

WD-40 beats Central Garden & Pet on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.