UNF vs. MGRC, KAR, HCSG, VVI, PFMT, CTAS, CPRT, IRM, SCI, and HRB
Should you be buying UniFirst stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UniFirst include McGrath RentCorp (MGRC), OPENLANE (KAR), Healthcare Services Group (HCSG), Viad (VVI), Performant Financial (PFMT), Cintas (CTAS), Copart (CPRT), Iron Mountain (IRM), Service Co. International (SCI), and H&R Block (HRB).
McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) and UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, community ranking and media sentiment.
In the previous week, McGrath RentCorp had 2 more articles in the media than UniFirst. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for McGrath RentCorp and 4 mentions for UniFirst. UniFirst's average media sentiment score of 1.76 beat McGrath RentCorp's score of 0.70 indicating that McGrath RentCorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.
92.1% of McGrath RentCorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.2% of UniFirst shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of McGrath RentCorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of UniFirst shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
McGrath RentCorp has higher earnings, but lower revenue than UniFirst. McGrath RentCorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than UniFirst, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
McGrath RentCorp has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UniFirst has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.
McGrath RentCorp presently has a consensus price target of $116.00, indicating a potential upside of 5.02%. UniFirst has a consensus price target of $177.75, indicating a potential upside of 9.70%. Given McGrath RentCorp's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe UniFirst is more favorable than McGrath RentCorp.
McGrath RentCorp received 19 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.34% of users gave McGrath RentCorp an outperform vote while only 53.21% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.
McGrath RentCorp has a net margin of 14.70% compared to McGrath RentCorp's net margin of 4.92%. UniFirst's return on equity of 13.43% beat McGrath RentCorp's return on equity.
McGrath RentCorp pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. McGrath RentCorp pays out 37.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UniFirst pays out 21.6% 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. McGrath RentCorp has increased its dividend for 32 consecutive years and UniFirst has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years. McGrath RentCorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
McGrath RentCorp beats UniFirst on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UNF 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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