URI vs. GWW, FAST, WSO, WCC, AIT, BECN, AL, MSM, GATX, and RUSHA
Should you be buying United Rentals stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of United Rentals include W.W. Grainger (GWW), Fastenal (FAST), Watsco (WSO), WESCO International (WCC), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Air Lease (AL), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), GATX (GATX), and Rush Enterprises (RUSHA). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.
W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) and United Rentals (NYSE:URI) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
United Rentals has a net margin of 17.31% compared to United Rentals' net margin of 10.94%. United Rentals' return on equity of 54.31% beat W.W. Grainger's return on equity.
80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.3% of United Rentals shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of United Rentals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. United Rentals pays an annual dividend of $6.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. W.W. Grainger pays out 22.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. United Rentals pays out 17.7% 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. W.W. Grainger has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and United Rentals has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. United Rentals is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
United Rentals has lower revenue, but higher earnings than W.W. Grainger. United Rentals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than W.W. Grainger, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
W.W. Grainger presently has a consensus price target of $959.44, suggesting a potential upside of 7.53%. United Rentals has a consensus price target of $612.73, suggesting a potential downside of 4.77%. Given United Rentals' higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than United Rentals.
United Rentals received 202 more outperform votes than W.W. Grainger when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.56% of users gave United Rentals an outperform vote while only 54.03% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.
In the previous week, United Rentals had 6 more articles in the media than W.W. Grainger. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for United Rentals and 6 mentions for W.W. Grainger. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.38 beat United Rentals' score of 1.34 indicating that United Rentals is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Rentals has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its share price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
United Rentals beats W.W. Grainger on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding URI 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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