OPENLANE (KAR) Competitors

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

Do institutionals and insiders believe in UNF or KAR?

78.2% of UniFirst shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.8% of OPENLANE shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of UniFirst shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of OPENLANE shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the media favor UNF or KAR?

In the previous week, UniFirst had 8 more articles in the media than OPENLANE. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for UniFirst and 2 mentions for OPENLANE. UniFirst's average media sentiment score of 0.70 beat OPENLANE's score of 0.09 indicating that UniFirst is being referred to more favorably in the media.

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

Do analysts rate UNF or KAR?

UniFirst currently has a consensus target price of $197.50, indicating a potential downside of 11.31%. OPENLANE has a consensus target price of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 9.52%. Given OPENLANE's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe OPENLANE is more favorable than UniFirst.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UniFirst	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.75
OPENLANE	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer UNF or KAR?

OPENLANE received 410 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.10% of users gave OPENLANE an outperform vote while only 53.02% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
UniFirst	Outperform Votes 237 53.02%	Underperform Votes 210 46.98%
OPENLANE	Outperform Votes 647 71.10%	Underperform Votes 263 28.90%

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, UNF or KAR?

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
UniFirst	$2.43B	1.70	$145.47M	$7.82	28.48
OPENLANE	$1.65B	1.30	-$154.10M	$0.26	77.26

Which has more risk & volatility, UNF or KAR?

UniFirst has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, OPENLANE has a beta of 1.52, suggesting that its stock price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is UNF or KAR more profitable?

UniFirst has a net margin of 6.00% compared to OPENLANE's net margin of 4.26%. OPENLANE's return on equity of 8.67% beat UniFirst's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UniFirst	6.00%	7.40%	5.80%
OPENLANE	4.26%	8.67%	2.45%

Summary

OPENLANE beats UniFirst on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.