UNF vs. HI, JBT, GEF, REZI, MWA, BRC, ATS, CSTM, KAI, and AIN Should you be buying UniFirst stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UniFirst include Hillenbrand (HI), John Bean Technologies (JBT), Greif (GEF), Resideo Technologies (REZI), Mueller Water Products (MWA), Brady (BRC), ATS (ATS), Constellium (CSTM), Kadant (KAI), and Albany International (AIN). These companies are all part of the "industrial products" sector.
Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI ) and UniFirst (NYSE:UNF ) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, media sentiment, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, community ranking and profitability.
Hillenbrand has a beta of 1.49, indicating that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UniFirst has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.
89.1% of Hillenbrand shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.2% of UniFirst shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Hillenbrand shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of UniFirst shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Hillenbrand had 1 more articles in the media than UniFirst. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Hillenbrand and 2 mentions for UniFirst. UniFirst's average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat Hillenbrand's score of 0.73 indicating that Hillenbrand is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Hillenbrand received 46 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.11% of users gave Hillenbrand an outperform vote while only 53.10% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.
Hillenbrand pays an annual dividend of $0.89 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Hillenbrand pays out 73.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UniFirst pays out 21.6% 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. Hillenbrand has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years and UniFirst has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Hillenbrand is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
UniFirst has a net margin of 4.92% compared to UniFirst's net margin of 2.79%. UniFirst's return on equity of 14.75% beat Hillenbrand's return on equity.
Hillenbrand currently has a consensus target price of $61.00, indicating a potential upside of 34.84%. UniFirst has a consensus target price of $177.75, indicating a potential upside of 6.41%. Given UniFirst's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Hillenbrand is more favorable than UniFirst.
Hillenbrand has higher revenue and earnings than UniFirst. UniFirst is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hillenbrand, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary Hillenbrand beats UniFirst on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UNF and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip Chart This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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