MSA vs. AIT, AA, MIDD, SITE, BERY, ADT, GTLS, MLI, FLS, and GPK
Should you be buying MSA Safety stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of MSA Safety include Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Alcoa (AA), Middleby (MIDD), SiteOne Landscape Supply (SITE), Berry Global Group (BERY), ADT (ADT), Chart Industries (GTLS), Mueller Industries (MLI), Flowserve (FLS), and Graphic Packaging (GPK). These companies are all part of the "industrial products" sector.
Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) and MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, community ranking, dividends, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.
Applied Industrial Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $201.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.37%. MSA Safety has a consensus target price of $189.50, indicating a potential upside of 2.48%. Given Applied Industrial Technologies' higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe MSA Safety is more favorable than Applied Industrial Technologies.
MSA Safety has a net margin of 14.81% compared to MSA Safety's net margin of 8.36%. Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity of 31.51% beat MSA Safety's return on equity.
93.5% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.5% of MSA Safety shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.1% of MSA Safety shares are held 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.
Applied Industrial Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. MSA Safety pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 15.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MSA Safety pays out 30.2% 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. Applied Industrial Technologies has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years and MSA Safety has raised its dividend for 55 consecutive years. MSA Safety is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
MSA Safety received 46 more outperform votes than Applied Industrial Technologies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.04% of users gave MSA Safety an outperform vote while only 58.71% of users gave Applied Industrial Technologies an outperform vote.
Applied Industrial Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than MSA Safety. Applied Industrial Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSA Safety, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, MSA Safety had 3 more articles in the media than Applied Industrial Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for MSA Safety and 6 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies. Applied Industrial Technologies' average media sentiment score of 1.31 beat MSA Safety's score of 0.83 indicating that MSA Safety is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSA Safety has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
MSA Safety beats Applied Industrial Technologies on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get MSA Safety News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for MSA and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MSA 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.
Skip Chart
MSA Safety Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools