EML vs. SCX, LCUT, OFLX, FSTR, GHM, PLL, BOOM, NNBR, HURC, and AP
Should you be buying Eastern stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Eastern include L.S. Starrett (SCX), Lifetime Brands (LCUT), Omega Flex (OFLX), L.B. Foster (FSTR), Graham (GHM), Piedmont Lithium (PLL), DMC Global (BOOM), NN (NNBR), Hurco Companies (HURC), and Ampco-Pittsburgh (AP).
Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) and L.S. Starrett (NYSE:SCX) are both small-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment, community ranking and earnings.
Eastern pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. L.S. Starrett pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Eastern pays out 27.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. L.S. Starrett pays out 24.1% 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. L.S. Starrett is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
L.S. Starrett has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Eastern. L.S. Starrett is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Eastern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
L.S. Starrett received 6 more outperform votes than Eastern when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 79.82% of users gave Eastern an outperform vote while only 66.43% of users gave L.S. Starrett an outperform vote.
77.0% of Eastern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.4% of L.S. Starrett shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.0% of Eastern shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.0% of L.S. Starrett shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Eastern has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, L.S. Starrett has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
L.S. Starrett has a net margin of 5.02% compared to Eastern's net margin of 3.69%. Eastern's return on equity of 8.44% beat L.S. Starrett's return on equity.
In the previous week, Eastern had 3 more articles in the media than L.S. Starrett. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Eastern and 1 mentions for L.S. Starrett. Eastern's average media sentiment score of 0.03 beat L.S. Starrett's score of 0.00 indicating that Eastern is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Eastern beats L.S. Starrett on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding EML and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ 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.
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