UniFirst (UNF) Competitors

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

Do institutionals & insiders believe in UNF or MGRC?

78.2% of UniFirst shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of McGrath RentCorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of UniFirst shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of McGrath RentCorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk and volatility, UNF or MGRC?

UniFirst has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McGrath RentCorp has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to UNF or MGRC?

In the previous week, McGrath RentCorp had 20 more articles in the media than UniFirst. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for McGrath RentCorp and 4 mentions for UniFirst. UniFirst's average media sentiment score of 0.89 beat McGrath RentCorp's score of 0.65 indicating that UniFirst is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
UniFirst	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
McGrath RentCorp	6 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate UNF or MGRC?

UniFirst currently has a consensus target price of $197.50, indicating a potential downside of 5.91%. McGrath RentCorp has a consensus target price of $145.50, indicating a potential upside of 14.40%. Given McGrath RentCorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe McGrath RentCorp 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
McGrath RentCorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has higher valuation & earnings, UNF or MGRC?

McGrath RentCorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than UniFirst. McGrath RentCorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than UniFirst, 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	$2.44B	1.60	$145.47M	$7.82	26.84
McGrath RentCorp	$910.94M	3.43	$174.62M	$9.43	13.49

Is UNF or MGRC a better dividend stock?

UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. McGrath RentCorp pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. UniFirst pays out 17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. McGrath RentCorp pays out 20.1% 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. McGrath RentCorp has raised its dividend for 32 consecutive years. McGrath RentCorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is UNF or MGRC more profitable?

McGrath RentCorp has a net margin of 25.44% compared to UniFirst's net margin of 6.00%. McGrath RentCorp's return on equity of 14.12% beat UniFirst's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UniFirst	6.00%	7.40%	5.80%
McGrath RentCorp	25.44%	14.12%	6.15%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in UNF or MGRC?

McGrath RentCorp received 19 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.05% of users gave McGrath RentCorp 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%
McGrath RentCorp	Outperform Votes 256 58.05%	Underperform Votes 185 41.95%

Summary

McGrath RentCorp beats UniFirst on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.