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 superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment, community ranking and earnings.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer RUSHA or AIT?

Rush Enterprises received 67 more outperform votes than Applied Industrial Technologies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.86% of users gave Rush Enterprises an outperform vote while only 59.33% of users gave Applied Industrial Technologies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Rush Enterprises	Outperform Votes 331 59.86%	Underperform Votes 222 40.14%
Applied Industrial Technologies	Outperform Votes 264 59.33%	Underperform Votes 181 40.67%

Is RUSHA or AIT more profitable?

Applied Industrial Technologies has a net margin of 8.62% compared to Rush Enterprises' net margin of 3.90%. Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity of 22.37% beat Rush Enterprises' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rush Enterprises	3.90%	14.76%	6.61%
Applied Industrial Technologies	8.62%	22.37%	13.03%

Do analysts prefer RUSHA or AIT?

Rush Enterprises presently has a consensus price target of $69.00, suggesting a potential upside of 23.83%. Applied Industrial Technologies has a consensus price target of $291.43, suggesting a potential upside of 18.60%. Given Rush Enterprises' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly 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 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 $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Rush Enterprises pays out 19.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 18.6% 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. Applied Industrial Technologies has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Do insiders and 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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to RUSHA or AIT?

In the previous week, Rush Enterprises had 12 more articles in the media than Applied Industrial Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Rush Enterprises and 9 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies. Applied Industrial Technologies' average media sentiment score of 1.00 beat Rush Enterprises' score of 0.89 indicating that Applied Industrial Technologies is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Rush Enterprises	8 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Applied Industrial Technologies	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility & risk, RUSHA or AIT?

Rush Enterprises has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger 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	$7.80B	0.56	$347.05M	$3.73	14.94
Applied Industrial Technologies	$4.48B	2.11	$385.76M	$9.87	24.90

Summary

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