UVV vs. VGR, PM, MO, ANDE, STKL, FIZZ, NTCOY, IPAR, BRFS, and SMPL
Should you be buying Universal stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Universal include Vector Group (VGR), Philip Morris International (PM), Altria Group (MO), Andersons (ANDE), SunOpta (STKL), National Beverage (FIZZ), Natura &Co (NTCOY), Inter Parfums (IPAR), BRF (BRFS), and Simply Good Foods (SMPL).
Universal (NYSE:UVV) and Vector Group (NYSE:VGR) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.
In the previous week, Vector Group had 3 more articles in the media than Universal. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Vector Group and 1 mentions for Universal. Universal's average media sentiment score of 1.60 beat Vector Group's score of 1.29 indicating that Universal is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Vector Group received 70 more outperform votes than Universal when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.92% of users gave Vector Group an outperform vote while only 58.33% of users gave Universal an outperform vote.
81.0% of Universal shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.1% of Vector Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Universal shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Vector Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Vector Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Universal. Vector Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Universal, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Universal has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vector Group has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Universal pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.8%. Vector Group pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.5%. Universal pays out 67.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Vector Group pays out 69.0% 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.
Vector Group has a net margin of 12.98% compared to Universal's net margin of 4.35%. Universal's return on equity of 8.81% beat Vector Group's return on equity.
Summary
Vector Group beats Universal on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UVV and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis 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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