GSK (GSK) Competitors

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) and GSK (NYSE:GSK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability and media sentiment.

Is AZN or GSK a better dividend stock?

AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. GSK pays an annual dividend of $1.57 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. AstraZeneca pays out 91.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. GSK pays out 98.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in AZN or GSK?

20.4% of AstraZeneca shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.7% of GSK shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.0% of GSK shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, AZN or GSK?

AstraZeneca has higher revenue and earnings than GSK. GSK is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AstraZeneca, 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
AstraZeneca	$54.07B	4.19	$7.04B	$2.26	32.32
GSK	$31.38B	2.55	$3.29B	$1.59	24.31

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AZN or GSK?

GSK received 760 more outperform votes than AstraZeneca when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.62% of users gave AstraZeneca an outperform vote while only 57.12% of users gave GSK an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AstraZeneca	Outperform Votes 62 59.62%	Underperform Votes 42 40.38%
GSK	Outperform Votes 822 57.12%	Underperform Votes 617 42.88%

Do analysts recommend AZN or GSK?

AstraZeneca presently has a consensus target price of $89.75, indicating a potential upside of 22.86%. GSK has a consensus target price of $43.25, indicating a potential upside of 11.90%. Given AstraZeneca's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AstraZeneca is more favorable than GSK.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AstraZeneca	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.10
GSK	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60

Does the media prefer AZN or GSK?

In the previous week, GSK had 20 more articles in the media than AstraZeneca. MarketBeat recorded 53 mentions for GSK and 33 mentions for AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca's average media sentiment score of 1.24 beat GSK's score of 0.31 indicating that AstraZeneca is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AstraZeneca	25 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
GSK	22 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	21 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is AZN or GSK more profitable?

AstraZeneca has a net margin of 13.01% compared to GSK's net margin of 8.13%. GSK's return on equity of 48.59% beat AstraZeneca's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AstraZeneca	13.01%	32.23%	12.31%
GSK	8.13%	48.59%	11.11%

Which has more risk & volatility, AZN or GSK?

AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.41, suggesting that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GSK has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AstraZeneca beats GSK on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.