MSA Safety (MSA) Competitors

Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) and MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, valuation, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, community ranking, earnings and institutional ownership.

Do analysts rate AVY or MSA?

Avery Dennison currently has a consensus price target of $222.51, suggesting a potential upside of 24.89%. MSA Safety has a consensus price target of $197.00, suggesting a potential upside of 29.61%. Given MSA Safety's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MSA Safety is more favorable than Avery Dennison.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avery Dennison	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82
MSA Safety	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has better earnings & valuation, AVY or MSA?

Avery Dennison has higher revenue and earnings than MSA Safety. Avery Dennison is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSA Safety, 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
Avery Dennison	$8.76B	1.61	$704.90M	$8.72	20.43
MSA Safety	$1.81B	3.30	$284.97M	$7.21	21.08

Does the media favor AVY or MSA?

In the previous week, Avery Dennison had 3 more articles in the media than MSA Safety. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Avery Dennison and 9 mentions for MSA Safety. MSA Safety's average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat Avery Dennison's score of 1.23 indicating that MSA Safety is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Avery Dennison	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
MSA Safety	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AVY or MSA more profitable?

MSA Safety has a net margin of 15.76% compared to Avery Dennison's net margin of 8.05%. Avery Dennison's return on equity of 33.06% beat MSA Safety's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avery Dennison	8.05%	33.06%	9.11%
MSA Safety	15.76%	28.64%	13.74%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AVY or MSA?

Avery Dennison received 131 more outperform votes than MSA Safety when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.15% of users gave MSA Safety an outperform vote while only 57.53% of users gave Avery Dennison an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Avery Dennison	Outperform Votes 428 57.53%	Underperform Votes 316 42.47%
MSA Safety	Outperform Votes 297 64.15%	Underperform Votes 166 35.85%

Which has more volatility and risk, AVY or MSA?

Avery Dennison has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSA Safety has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in AVY or MSA?

94.2% of Avery Dennison shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.5% of MSA Safety shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Avery Dennison shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.2% of MSA Safety shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is AVY or MSA a better dividend stock?

Avery Dennison pays an annual dividend of $3.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. MSA Safety pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Avery Dennison pays out 40.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MSA Safety pays out 28.3% 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. Avery Dennison has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and MSA Safety has increased its dividend for 55 consecutive years.

Summary

MSA Safety beats Avery Dennison on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.