ECL vs. SHW, IFF, CE, RPM, ALB, NEU, BCPC, ASH, FUL, and SXT
Should you be buying Ecolab stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ecolab include Sherwin-Williams (SHW), International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Celanese (CE), RPM International (RPM), Albemarle (ALB), NewMarket (NEU), Balchem (BCPC), Ashland (ASH), H.B. Fuller (FUL), and Sensient Technologies (SXT). These companies are all part of the "specialty chemicals" industry.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) and Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and community ranking.
74.9% of Ecolab shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Sherwin-Williams shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Ecolab shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Sherwin-Williams shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Ecolab currently has a consensus target price of $239.56, suggesting a potential upside of 0.16%. Sherwin-Williams has a consensus target price of $344.41, suggesting a potential upside of 17.97%. Given Sherwin-Williams' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sherwin-Williams is more favorable than Ecolab.
In the previous week, Ecolab and Ecolab both had 10 articles in the media. Sherwin-Williams' average media sentiment score of 1.70 beat Ecolab's score of 1.25 indicating that Sherwin-Williams is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Sherwin-Williams has higher revenue and earnings than Ecolab. Sherwin-Williams is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ecolab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Ecolab has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sherwin-Williams has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Sherwin-Williams has a net margin of 10.52% compared to Ecolab's net margin of 10.01%. Sherwin-Williams' return on equity of 73.74% beat Ecolab's return on equity.
Ecolab pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Sherwin-Williams pays an annual dividend of $2.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Ecolab pays out 42.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sherwin-Williams pays out 30.5% 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. Sherwin-Williams is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Sherwin-Williams received 138 more outperform votes than Ecolab when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.78% of users gave Ecolab an outperform vote while only 64.30% of users gave Sherwin-Williams an outperform vote.
Summary
Sherwin-Williams beats Ecolab on 16 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ECL 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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