Watsco (WSO) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger received 213 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.39% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 53.42% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
W.W. Grainger	Outperform Votes 547 53.42%	Underperform Votes 477 46.58%
Watsco	Outperform Votes 334 55.39%	Underperform Votes 269 44.61%

Is GWW or WSO more profitable?

W.W. Grainger has a net margin of 11.12% compared to Watsco's net margin of 7.04%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 52.43% beat Watsco's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.W. Grainger	11.12%	52.43%	22.15%
Watsco	7.04%	17.59%	12.09%

Do analysts prefer GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger currently has a consensus target price of $1,151.50, suggesting a potential upside of 16.38%. Watsco has a consensus target price of $486.25, suggesting a potential downside of 6.08%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher probable upside, equities 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)	3 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
Watsco	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Do institutionals & 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. 6.1% 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 hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

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 0.8%. Watsco pays an annual dividend of $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. W.W. Grainger pays out 21.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Watsco pays out 81.5% 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 12 consecutive years.

Which has more risk & volatility, GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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	$17.17B	2.78	$1.91B	$38.71	25.56
Watsco	$7.62B	2.75	$536.34M	$13.25	39.07

Does the media prefer GWW or WSO?

In the previous week, W.W. Grainger had 7 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for W.W. Grainger and 11 mentions for Watsco. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Watsco's score of 1.29 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	17 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Watsco	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

W.W. Grainger beats Watsco on 16 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.