Rush Enterprises (RUSHA) Competitors

Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ:RUSHA) and Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) are both mid-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Which has more risk & volatility, RUSHA or AIT?

Rush Enterprises has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of RUSHA or AIT?

84.4% of Rush Enterprises shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 12.5% of Rush Enterprises shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer RUSHA or AIT?

Rush Enterprises received 69 more outperform votes than Applied Industrial Technologies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.78% of users gave Rush Enterprises an outperform vote while only 59.18% of users gave Applied Industrial Technologies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Rush Enterprises	Outperform Votes 330 59.78%	Underperform Votes 222 40.22%
Applied Industrial Technologies	Outperform Votes 261 59.18%	Underperform Votes 180 40.82%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, RUSHA or AIT?

Applied Industrial Technologies has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Rush Enterprises. Rush Enterprises is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Applied Industrial Technologies, 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
Rush Enterprises	$7.82B	0.55	$347.05M	$3.77	14.45
Applied Industrial Technologies	$4.48B	2.06	$385.76M	$9.80	24.55

Does the media favor RUSHA or AIT?

In the previous week, Applied Industrial Technologies had 4 more articles in the media than Rush Enterprises. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies and 3 mentions for Rush Enterprises. Rush Enterprises' average media sentiment score of 1.54 beat Applied Industrial Technologies' score of 0.89 indicating that Rush Enterprises is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Rush Enterprises	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Applied Industrial Technologies	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is RUSHA or AIT a better dividend stock?

Rush Enterprises pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Applied Industrial Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Rush Enterprises pays out 19.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 15.1% 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. Applied Industrial Technologies has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Do analysts prefer RUSHA or AIT?

Rush Enterprises presently has a consensus target price of $69.00, indicating a potential upside of 26.70%. Applied Industrial Technologies has a consensus target price of $285.71, indicating a potential upside of 18.76%. Given Rush Enterprises' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Rush Enterprises is more favorable than Applied Industrial Technologies.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rush Enterprises	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Applied Industrial Technologies	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.88

Is RUSHA or AIT more profitable?

Applied Industrial Technologies has a net margin of 8.57% compared to Rush Enterprises' net margin of 3.93%. Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity of 22.68% beat Rush Enterprises' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rush Enterprises	3.93%	15.43%	6.78%
Applied Industrial Technologies	8.57%	22.68%	13.14%

Summary

Applied Industrial Technologies beats Rush Enterprises on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.