AIT vs. WSO, WCC, BECN, AL, MSM, GATX, RUSHA, HEES, MRC, and BXC
Should you be buying Applied Industrial Technologies stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Applied Industrial Technologies include Watsco (WSO), WESCO International (WCC), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Air Lease (AL), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), GATX (GATX), Rush Enterprises (RUSHA), H&E Equipment Services (HEES), MRC Global (MRC), and BlueLinx (BXC). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.
Watsco (NYSE:WSO) and Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) are both construction companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, community ranking, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, media sentiment, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.
Watsco has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Watsco currently has a consensus target price of $404.25, indicating a potential downside of 12.65%. Applied Industrial Technologies has a consensus target price of $201.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.39%. Given Watsco's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Applied Industrial Technologies is more favorable than Watsco.
Applied Industrial Technologies has a net margin of 8.36% compared to Applied Industrial Technologies' net margin of 7.03%. Watsco's return on equity of 23.69% beat Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity.
Watsco pays an annual dividend of $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Applied Industrial Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Watsco pays out 83.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 15.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Watsco has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and Applied Industrial Technologies has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Watsco is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
89.7% of Watsco shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.9% of Watsco shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Watsco has higher revenue and earnings than Applied Industrial Technologies. Applied Industrial Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Watsco, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Applied Industrial Technologies had 9 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies and 6 mentions for Watsco. Applied Industrial Technologies' average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat Watsco's score of 0.81 indicating that Watsco is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Watsco received 84 more outperform votes than Applied Industrial Technologies when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 58.71% of users gave Applied Industrial Technologies an outperform vote while only 55.46% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote.
Summary
Applied Industrial Technologies beats Watsco 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 AIT 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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