ABM vs. UNF, IESC, AZZ, MEG, NVEE, CLH, TTEK, CWST, SRCL, and SP
Should you be buying ABM Industries stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of ABM Industries include UniFirst (UNF), IES (IESC), AZZ (AZZ), Montrose Environmental Group (MEG), NV5 Global (NVEE), Clean Harbors (CLH), Tetra Tech (TTEK), Casella Waste Systems (CWST), Stericycle (SRCL), and SP Plus (SP).
UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) and ABM Industries (NYSE:ABM) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, earnings and risk.
UniFirst has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ABM Industries has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, ABM Industries had 10 more articles in the media than UniFirst. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for ABM Industries and 3 mentions for UniFirst. UniFirst's average media sentiment score of 0.46 beat ABM Industries' score of 0.43 indicating that ABM Industries is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
UniFirst has a net margin of 4.92% compared to UniFirst's net margin of 3.15%. UniFirst's return on equity of 12.88% beat ABM Industries' return on equity.
ABM Industries has higher revenue and earnings than UniFirst. ABM Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than UniFirst, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. ABM Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. UniFirst pays out 21.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ABM Industries pays out 23.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. UniFirst has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years and ABM Industries has increased its dividend for 58 consecutive years. ABM Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
UniFirst currently has a consensus price target of $177.75, suggesting a potential upside of 9.97%. ABM Industries has a consensus price target of $45.20, suggesting a potential downside of 2.98%. Given ABM Industries' higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe UniFirst is more favorable than ABM Industries.
ABM Industries received 88 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.38% of users gave ABM Industries an outperform vote while only 53.21% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.
78.2% of UniFirst shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of ABM Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of UniFirst shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of ABM Industries shares are owned by 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.
Summary
ABM Industries beats UniFirst on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ABM 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 NYSE 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.
ABM Industries Competitors List
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