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 compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk, community ranking, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of GWW or WSO?

80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Watsco shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of Watsco shares are owned by company 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 stronger earnings and valuation, 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	$16.48B	3.29	$1.83B	$36.89	30.17
Watsco	$7.28B	2.75	$536.34M	$12.94	38.40

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 2.2%. 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 increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years and Watsco has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Which has more volatility & risk, GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.18, suggesting that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger received 213 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.41% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 53.48% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
W.W. Grainger	Outperform Votes 546 53.48%	Underperform Votes 475 46.52%
Watsco	Outperform Votes 333 55.41%	Underperform Votes 268 44.59%

Do analysts prefer GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger currently has a consensus price target of $1,140.56, suggesting a potential upside of 2.47%. Watsco has a consensus price target of $488.33, suggesting a potential downside of 1.73%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly 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)	9 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.23
Watsco	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

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%

Does the media refer more to GWW or WSO?

In the previous week, W.W. Grainger had 6 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for W.W. Grainger and 12 mentions for Watsco. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.39 beat Watsco's score of 0.89 indicating that W.W. Grainger is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
W.W. Grainger	14 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Watsco	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

W.W. Grainger beats Watsco on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.