Costain Group (COST) Competitors

Costain Group (LON:COST) and Pets at Home Group (LON:PETS) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, media sentiment, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, community ranking and profitability.

Do analysts rate COST or PETS?

Costain Group presently has a consensus target price of GBX 105, suggesting a potential downside of 15.87%. Pets at Home Group has a consensus target price of GBX 298.33, suggesting a potential upside of 15.01%. Given Pets at Home Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Pets at Home Group is more favorable than Costain Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Costain Group	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Pets at Home Group	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Is COST or PETS a better dividend stock?

Costain Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 1 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Pets at Home Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 13 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Costain Group pays out 8.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pets at Home Group pays out 79.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Is COST or PETS more profitable?

Pets at Home Group has a net margin of 5.36% compared to Costain Group's net margin of 2.33%. Costain Group's return on equity of 13.56% beat Pets at Home Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Costain Group	2.33%	13.56%	5.63%
Pets at Home Group	5.36%	8.05%	4.66%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in COST or PETS?

Costain Group received 30 more outperform votes than Pets at Home Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 84.03% of users gave Costain Group an outperform vote while only 73.27% of users gave Pets at Home Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Costain Group	Outperform Votes 463 84.03%	Underperform Votes 88 15.97%
Pets at Home Group	Outperform Votes 433 73.27%	Underperform Votes 158 26.73%

Does the media prefer COST or PETS?

In the previous week, Costain Group had 1 more articles in the media than Pets at Home Group. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Costain Group and 1 mentions for Pets at Home Group. Pets at Home Group's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Costain Group's score of 0.43 indicating that Pets at Home Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Costain Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Pets at Home Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has higher earnings and valuation, COST or PETS?

Pets at Home Group has higher revenue and earnings than Costain Group. Costain Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pets at Home Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Costain Group	£1.28B	0.26	£29.90M	£11.20	11.14
Pets at Home Group	£1.41B	0.84	£75.43M	£16.45	15.77

Do insiders & institutionals believe in COST or PETS?

44.7% of Costain Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.8% of Pets at Home Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.4% of Costain Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Pets at Home Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, COST or PETS?

Costain Group has a beta of 2.64, suggesting that its share price is 164% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pets at Home Group has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pets at Home Group beats Costain Group on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.