UniFirst (UNF) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer MGRC or UNF?

McGrath RentCorp received 20 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.01% of users gave McGrath RentCorp an outperform vote while only 52.55% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
McGrath RentCorp	Outperform Votes 257 58.01%	Underperform Votes 186 41.99%
UniFirst	Outperform Votes 237 52.55%	Underperform Votes 214 47.45%

Do analysts recommend MGRC or UNF?

McGrath RentCorp presently has a consensus target price of $145.50, suggesting a potential upside of 35.70%. UniFirst has a consensus target price of $180.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.25%. Given McGrath RentCorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe McGrath RentCorp is more favorable than UniFirst.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
McGrath RentCorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
UniFirst	2 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.50

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, MGRC or UNF?

McGrath RentCorp has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
McGrath RentCorp	$910.94M	2.89	$174.62M	$9.43	11.37
UniFirst	$2.45B	1.31	$145.47M	$8.04	21.47

Which has more risk and volatility, MGRC or UNF?

McGrath RentCorp has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UniFirst has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to MGRC or UNF?

In the previous week, UniFirst had 38 more articles in the media than McGrath RentCorp. MarketBeat recorded 47 mentions for UniFirst and 9 mentions for McGrath RentCorp. McGrath RentCorp's average media sentiment score of 1.54 beat UniFirst's score of 0.62 indicating that McGrath RentCorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
McGrath RentCorp	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
UniFirst	16 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	16 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is MGRC or UNF 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 13.68% beat UniFirst's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
McGrath RentCorp	25.44%	13.68%	6.16%
UniFirst	6.00%	7.40%	5.80%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of MGRC or UNF?

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

Is MGRC or UNF a better dividend stock?

McGrath RentCorp pays an annual dividend of $1.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. McGrath RentCorp pays out 20.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UniFirst pays out 17.4% 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 33 consecutive years. McGrath RentCorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

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