GSK vs. MRK, ABBV, AZN, NVS, ABT, PFE, SNY, VRTX, REGN, and BMY
Should you be buying GSK stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of GSK include Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), AbbVie (ABBV), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Pfizer (PFE), Sanofi (SNY), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and GSK (NYSE:GSK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.
In the previous week, Merck & Co., Inc. had 3 more articles in the media than GSK. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc. and 17 mentions for GSK. GSK's average media sentiment score of 0.89 beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s score of 0.30 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
GSK has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. GSK is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Merck & Co., Inc., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.7% of GSK shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.0% of GSK shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
GSK has a net margin of 14.62% compared to GSK's net margin of 3.76%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity of 51.54% beat GSK's return on equity.
Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.39, meaning that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GSK has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus price target of $133.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.79%. GSK has a consensus price target of $47.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.06%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe GSK is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. GSK pays an annual dividend of $1.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 342.2% 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 53.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. GSK is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Merck & Co., Inc. received 159 more outperform votes than GSK when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.01% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote while only 57.00% of users gave GSK an outperform vote.
Summary
Merck & Co., Inc. beats GSK on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding GSK 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.
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