Willis Lease Finance (WLFC) Competitors

MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) and Willis Lease Finance (NASDAQ:WLFC) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking and valuation.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of MSM or WLFC?

79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.7% of Willis Lease Finance shares are held by institutional investors. 18.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 57.0% of Willis Lease Finance shares are held 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.

Is MSM or WLFC a better dividend stock?

MSC Industrial Direct pays an annual dividend of $3.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Willis Lease Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. MSC Industrial Direct pays out 81.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Willis Lease Finance pays out 6.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in MSM or WLFC?

MSC Industrial Direct received 232 more outperform votes than Willis Lease Finance when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 62.78% of users gave Willis Lease Finance an outperform vote while only 52.57% of users gave MSC Industrial Direct an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
MSC Industrial Direct	Outperform Votes 399 52.57%	Underperform Votes 360 47.43%
Willis Lease Finance	Outperform Votes 167 62.78%	Underperform Votes 99 37.22%

Which has more risk and volatility, MSM or WLFC?

MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Willis Lease Finance has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, MSM or WLFC?

MSC Industrial Direct has higher revenue and earnings than Willis Lease Finance. Willis Lease Finance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSC Industrial Direct, 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
MSC Industrial Direct	$3.80B	1.17	$258.59M	$4.19	18.89
Willis Lease Finance	$569.22M	2.05	$43.78M	$15.39	11.48

Does the media favor MSM or WLFC?

In the previous week, MSC Industrial Direct and MSC Industrial Direct both had 8 articles in the media. MSC Industrial Direct's average media sentiment score of 1.46 beat Willis Lease Finance's score of 0.86 indicating that MSC Industrial Direct is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MSC Industrial Direct	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Willis Lease Finance	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is MSM or WLFC more profitable?

Willis Lease Finance has a net margin of 18.56% compared to MSC Industrial Direct's net margin of 6.21%. Willis Lease Finance's return on equity of 20.62% beat MSC Industrial Direct's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSC Industrial Direct	6.21%	17.80%	10.02%
Willis Lease Finance	18.56%	20.62%	3.49%

Do analysts rate MSM or WLFC?

MSC Industrial Direct currently has a consensus target price of $83.80, suggesting a potential upside of 5.86%. Given MSC Industrial Direct's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe MSC Industrial Direct is more favorable than Willis Lease Finance.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSC Industrial Direct	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.14
Willis Lease Finance	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Summary

MSC Industrial Direct beats Willis Lease Finance on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.