AZN vs. GSK, HLN, SN, CTEC, HIK, HCM, INDV, GNS, ONT, and SPI
Should you be buying AstraZeneca stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of AstraZeneca include GSK (GSK), Haleon (HLN), Smith & Nephew (SN), ConvaTec Group (CTEC), Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK), HUTCHMED (HCM), Indivior (INDV), Genus (GNS), Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), and Spire Healthcare Group (SPI). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
GSK (LON:GSK) and AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk, media sentiment, dividends and community ranking.
GSK pays an annual dividend of GBX 64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of GBX 228 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. GSK pays out 5,333.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AstraZeneca pays out 7,524.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. GSK is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
GSK has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.19, meaning that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500.
AstraZeneca has higher revenue and earnings than GSK. GSK is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AstraZeneca, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
45.4% of GSK shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.8% of AstraZeneca shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of GSK shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of AstraZeneca shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
GSK has a net margin of 16.25% compared to GSK's net margin of 13.00%. AstraZeneca's return on equity of 46.38% beat GSK's return on equity.
In the previous week, GSK had 6 more articles in the media than AstraZeneca. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for GSK and 7 mentions for AstraZeneca. GSK's average media sentiment score of 0.52 beat AstraZeneca's score of 0.34 indicating that AstraZeneca is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
GSK presently has a consensus price target of GBX 1,630.63, indicating a potential upside of 1.98%. AstraZeneca has a consensus price target of £115.43, indicating a potential upside of 6.67%. Given GSK's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AstraZeneca is more favorable than GSK.
AstraZeneca received 769 more outperform votes than GSK when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.63% of users gave AstraZeneca an outperform vote while only 50.21% of users gave GSK an outperform vote.
Summary
AstraZeneca beats GSK on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AZN 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 LON 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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