OPENLANE (KAR) Competitors

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) and UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) are both mid-cap auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Is KAR or UNF a better dividend stock?

OPENLANE pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. OPENLANE pays out 143.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. UniFirst pays out 17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Does the media favor KAR or UNF?

In the previous week, UniFirst had 3 more articles in the media than OPENLANE. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for UniFirst and 2 mentions for OPENLANE. UniFirst's average media sentiment score of 1.39 beat OPENLANE's score of 0.89 indicating that UniFirst is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
OPENLANE	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
UniFirst	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has higher earnings & valuation, KAR or UNF?

UniFirst has higher revenue and earnings than OPENLANE. UniFirst is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than OPENLANE, 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
OPENLANE	$1.79B	1.28	-$154.10M	$0.53	40.54
UniFirst	$2.44B	1.56	$145.47M	$7.82	26.22

Do analysts prefer KAR or UNF?

OPENLANE presently has a consensus target price of $22.80, indicating a potential upside of 6.12%. UniFirst has a consensus target price of $203.33, indicating a potential downside of 0.84%. Given OPENLANE's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe OPENLANE is more favorable than UniFirst.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
OPENLANE	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
UniFirst	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.67

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in KAR or UNF?

OPENLANE received 414 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.99% of users gave OPENLANE an outperform vote while only 53.02% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
OPENLANE	Outperform Votes 651 70.99%	Underperform Votes 266 29.01%
UniFirst	Outperform Votes 237 53.02%	Underperform Votes 210 46.98%

Do insiders and institutionals believe in KAR or UNF?

99.8% of OPENLANE shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.2% of UniFirst shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of OPENLANE shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of UniFirst shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is KAR or UNF more profitable?

OPENLANE has a net margin of 6.27% compared to UniFirst's net margin of 6.00%. OPENLANE's return on equity of 9.20% beat UniFirst's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
OPENLANE	6.27%	9.20%	2.62%
UniFirst	6.00%	7.40%	5.80%

Which has more risk & volatility, KAR or UNF?

OPENLANE has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UniFirst has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

OPENLANE beats UniFirst on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.