Crane (CR) Competitors

Xylem (NYSE:XYL) and Crane (NYSE:CR) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and media sentiment.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of XYL or CR?

88.0% of Xylem shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of Crane shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Xylem shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Crane shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts prefer XYL or CR?

Xylem presently has a consensus price target of $152.20, suggesting a potential upside of 26.02%. Crane has a consensus price target of $167.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.56%. Given Xylem's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Xylem is more favorable than Crane.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Xylem	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Crane	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Is XYL or CR a better dividend stock?

Xylem pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Crane pays an annual dividend of $0.82 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Xylem pays out 42.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crane pays out 18.1% 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. Xylem has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Xylem is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, XYL or CR?

Xylem has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crane has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor XYL or CR?

In the previous week, Xylem had 12 more articles in the media than Crane. MarketBeat recorded 27 mentions for Xylem and 15 mentions for Crane. Xylem's average media sentiment score of 0.74 beat Crane's score of 0.15 indicating that Xylem is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Xylem	14 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Crane	5 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community favor XYL or CR?

Xylem received 94 more outperform votes than Crane when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.19% of users gave Xylem an outperform vote while only 59.64% of users gave Crane an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Xylem	Outperform Votes 527 63.19%	Underperform Votes 307 36.81%
Crane	Outperform Votes 433 59.64%	Underperform Votes 293 40.36%

Which has higher earnings & valuation, XYL or CR?

Xylem has higher revenue and earnings than Crane. Crane is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Xylem, 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
Xylem	$8.42B	3.48	$609M	$3.42	35.31
Crane	$2.28B	4.01	$401.10M	$4.54	35.18

Is XYL or CR more profitable?

Crane has a net margin of 13.10% compared to Xylem's net margin of 9.85%. Crane's return on equity of 24.45% beat Xylem's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Xylem	9.85%	9.61%	6.22%
Crane	13.10%	24.45%	10.14%

Summary

Xylem beats Crane on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.