Watsco (WSO) Competitors

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) and Watsco (NYSE:WSO) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, media sentiment, dividends and community ranking.

Is GWW or WSO more profitable?

W.W. Grainger has a net margin of 10.80% compared to Watsco's net margin of 6.99%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 51.78% beat Watsco's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.W. Grainger	10.80%	51.78%	21.91%
Watsco	6.99%	17.77%	12.28%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in GWW or WSO?

80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Watsco shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of Watsco shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is GWW or WSO a better dividend stock?

W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Watsco pays an annual dividend of $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. W.W. Grainger pays out 22.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Watsco pays out 83.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. W.W. Grainger has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years and Watsco has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Does the media refer more to GWW or WSO?

In the previous week, W.W. Grainger had 5 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for W.W. Grainger and 8 mentions for Watsco. Watsco's average media sentiment score of 1.63 beat W.W. Grainger's score of 1.39 indicating that Watsco is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
W.W. Grainger	12 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Watsco	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do analysts recommend GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger presently has a consensus target price of $1,109.00, indicating a potential downside of 1.06%. Watsco has a consensus target price of $488.33, indicating a potential downside of 3.96%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Watsco.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.W. Grainger	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.21
Watsco	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has better valuation and earnings, GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger has higher revenue and earnings than Watsco. W.W. Grainger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Watsco, 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
W.W. Grainger	$16.93B	3.22	$1.83B	$36.89	30.39
Watsco	$7.47B	2.75	$536.34M	$12.94	39.29

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger received 213 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.50% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 53.53% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
W.W. Grainger	Outperform Votes 546 53.53%	Underperform Votes 474 46.47%
Watsco	Outperform Votes 333 55.50%	Underperform Votes 267 44.50%

Summary

W.W. Grainger beats Watsco on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.