Pearson (PSO) Competitors

News (NASDAQ:NWS) and Pearson (NYSE:PSO) are both large-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment and earnings.

Is NWS or PSO more profitable?

News has a net margin of 4.22% compared to Pearson's net margin of 0.00%. News' return on equity of 5.31% beat Pearson's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
News	4.22%	5.31%	2.89%
Pearson	N/A	N/A	N/A

Is NWS or PSO a better dividend stock?

News pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Pearson pays an annual dividend of $0.41 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. News pays out 27.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pearson pays out 43.6% 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.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, NWS or PSO?

Pearson has lower revenue, but higher earnings than News. Pearson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than News, 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
News	$10.25B	1.69	$266M	$0.73	41.86
Pearson	$3.55B	2.97	$470.19M	$0.94	16.86

Which has more risk & volatility, NWS or PSO?

News has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pearson has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in NWS or PSO?

14.6% of News shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.1% of Pearson shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.7% of News shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Pearson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor NWS or PSO?

Pearson received 103 more outperform votes than News when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 60.83% of users gave News an outperform vote while only 48.46% of users gave Pearson an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
News	Outperform Votes 306 60.83%	Underperform Votes 197 39.17%
Pearson	Outperform Votes 409 48.46%	Underperform Votes 435 51.54%

Do analysts recommend NWS or PSO?

Pearson has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.56%. Given Pearson's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pearson is more favorable than News.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
News	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	4.00
Pearson	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.50

Does the media prefer NWS or PSO?

In the previous week, News had 13 more articles in the media than Pearson. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for News and 9 mentions for Pearson. News' average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat Pearson's score of 0.48 indicating that News is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
News	4 Very Positive mention(s)	16 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Pearson	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

News beats Pearson on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.