McGrath RentCorp (MGRC) Competitors

UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) and McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, community ranking, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and media sentiment.

Which has more volatility & risk, UNF or MGRC?

UniFirst has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McGrath RentCorp has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of UNF or MGRC?

78.2% of UniFirst shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of McGrath RentCorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of UniFirst shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of McGrath RentCorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate UNF or MGRC?

UniFirst presently has a consensus price target of $189.67, indicating a potential upside of 9.15%. McGrath RentCorp has a consensus price target of $145.50, indicating a potential upside of 28.17%. Given McGrath RentCorp's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe McGrath RentCorp is more favorable than UniFirst.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UniFirst	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.67
McGrath RentCorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is UNF or MGRC a better dividend stock?

UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. McGrath RentCorp pays an annual dividend of $1.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. UniFirst pays out 17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. McGrath RentCorp pays out 20.6% 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. McGrath RentCorp has raised its dividend for 33 consecutive years. McGrath RentCorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in UNF or MGRC?

McGrath RentCorp received 20 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.01% of users gave McGrath RentCorp an outperform vote while only 52.90% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
UniFirst	Outperform Votes 237 52.90%	Underperform Votes 211 47.10%
McGrath RentCorp	Outperform Votes 257 58.01%	Underperform Votes 186 41.99%

Does the media prefer UNF or MGRC?

In the previous week, UniFirst had 21 more articles in the media than McGrath RentCorp. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for UniFirst and 4 mentions for McGrath RentCorp. McGrath RentCorp's average media sentiment score of 1.45 beat UniFirst's score of 0.21 indicating that McGrath RentCorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
UniFirst	5 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	13 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
McGrath RentCorp	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is UNF or MGRC more profitable?

McGrath RentCorp has a net margin of 25.44% compared to UniFirst's net margin of 6.00%. McGrath RentCorp's return on equity of 13.68% beat UniFirst's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UniFirst	6.00%	7.40%	5.80%
McGrath RentCorp	25.44%	13.68%	6.16%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, UNF or MGRC?

McGrath RentCorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than UniFirst. McGrath RentCorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than UniFirst, 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
UniFirst	$2.44B	1.32	$145.47M	$7.82	22.22
McGrath RentCorp	$910.94M	3.06	$174.62M	$9.43	12.04

Summary

McGrath RentCorp beats UniFirst on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.