AZN vs. GSK, HLN, SN, CTEC, HIK, HCM, INDV, GNS, SPI, and ONT
Should you be buying AstraZeneca stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of AstraZeneca include GSK (GSK), Haleon (HLN), Smith & Nephew (SN), ConvaTec Group (CTEC), Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK), HUTCHMED (HCM), Indivior (INDV), Genus (GNS), Spire Healthcare Group (SPI), and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) and GSK (LON:GSK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment and institutional ownership.
50.6% of AstraZeneca shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.4% of GSK shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of AstraZeneca shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of GSK shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
AstraZeneca presently has a consensus price target of £117.57, indicating a potential downside of 2.91%. GSK has a consensus price target of GBX 1,675.63, indicating a potential downside of 5.60%. Given AstraZeneca's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AstraZeneca is more favorable than GSK.
GSK has a net margin of 14.59% compared to AstraZeneca's net margin of 13.30%. GSK's return on equity of 38.78% beat AstraZeneca's return on equity.
AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.19, meaning that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GSK has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.
AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of GBX 228 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. GSK pays an annual dividend of GBX 60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. AstraZeneca pays out 7,058.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. GSK pays out 5,504.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. GSK is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
AstraZeneca received 769 more outperform votes than GSK when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.62% of users gave AstraZeneca an outperform vote while only 50.19% of users gave GSK an outperform vote.
In the previous week, GSK had 2 more articles in the media than AstraZeneca. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for GSK and 4 mentions for AstraZeneca. GSK's average media sentiment score of 0.21 beat AstraZeneca's score of 0.20 indicating that GSK is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
AstraZeneca has higher revenue and earnings than GSK. GSK is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AstraZeneca, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
AstraZeneca beats GSK on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get AstraZeneca News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for AZN and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AZN 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.
AstraZeneca Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
