AZN vs. GSK, HLN, SN, CTEC, DPH, HIK, MDC, BTG, ABC, and UDG
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), Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH), Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK), Mediclinic International (MDC), BTG (BTG), Abcam (ABC), and UDG Healthcare (UDG). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
GSK (LON:GSK) and AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, community ranking, media sentiment and profitability.
GSK has a net margin of 14.59% compared to GSK's net margin of 13.30%. AstraZeneca's return on equity of 38.78% beat GSK's return on equity.
GSK presently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,675.63, indicating a potential downside of 3.70%. AstraZeneca has a consensus target price of £118, indicating a potential downside of 1.90%. Given GSK's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AstraZeneca is more favorable than GSK.
AstraZeneca received 772 more outperform votes than GSK when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.64% of users gave AstraZeneca an outperform vote while only 50.19% of users gave GSK an outperform vote.
GSK has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.16, indicating that its share price is 84% less volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
In the previous week, AstraZeneca had 1 more articles in the media than GSK. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for AstraZeneca and 7 mentions for GSK. GSK's average media sentiment score of 0.19 beat AstraZeneca's score of 0.04 indicating that AstraZeneca is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
44.8% of GSK shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.7% of AstraZeneca shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of GSK shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of AstraZeneca shares are held by 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 pays an annual dividend of GBX 60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of GBX 228 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. 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. AstraZeneca pays out 7,125.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. GSK is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
AstraZeneca beats GSK on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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.
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