AHT vs. EXPN, FERG, RR, RTO, HLMA, IAG, BA, MRO, ITRK, and SPX
Should you be buying Ashtead Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ashtead Group include Experian (EXPN), Ferguson (FERG), Rolls-Royce Holdings plc (RR), Rentokil Initial (RTO), Halma (HLMA), International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), BAE Systems (BA), Melrose Industries (MRO), Intertek Group (ITRK), and Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX). These companies are all part of the "industrials" sector.
Experian (LON:EXPN) and Ashtead Group (LON:AHT) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, community ranking, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.
Ashtead Group has higher revenue and earnings than Experian. Ashtead Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Experian, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Experian has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashtead Group has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Experian has a net margin of 16.89% compared to Experian's net margin of 15.17%. Ashtead Group's return on equity of 27.87% beat Experian's return on equity.
Experian currently has a consensus price target of GBX 3,394, indicating a potential downside of 8.86%. Ashtead Group has a consensus price target of GBX 4,970.63, indicating a potential downside of 13.85%. Given Ashtead Group's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Experian is more favorable than Ashtead Group.
Experian pays an annual dividend of GBX 46 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Ashtead Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Experian pays out 4,466.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ashtead Group pays out 2,749.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ashtead Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Ashtead Group received 42 more outperform votes than Experian when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.26% of users gave Ashtead Group an outperform vote while only 69.50% of users gave Experian an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Experian and Experian both had 2 articles in the media. Experian's average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat Ashtead Group's score of 0.52 indicating that Ashtead Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
58.1% of Experian shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.3% of Ashtead Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Experian shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Ashtead Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Ashtead Group beats Experian on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AHT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of LON 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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