Crest Nicholson (CRST) Competitors

Cairn Homes (LON:CRN) and Crest Nicholson (LON:CRST) are both small-cap consumer cyclical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, community ranking, risk, profitability, dividends, media sentiment and valuation.

Do analysts prefer CRN or CRST?

Cairn Homes currently has a consensus price target of GBX 175, indicating a potential downside of 9.70%. Crest Nicholson has a consensus price target of GBX 218.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.89%. Given Crest Nicholson's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Crest Nicholson is more favorable than Cairn Homes.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cairn Homes	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Crest Nicholson	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.67

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of CRN or CRST?

69.1% of Cairn Homes shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.5% of Crest Nicholson shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.6% of Cairn Homes shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of Crest Nicholson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, CRN or CRST?

Cairn Homes has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crest Nicholson has a beta of 2, suggesting that its share price is 100% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer CRN or CRST?

In the previous week, Crest Nicholson had 9 more articles in the media than Cairn Homes. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Crest Nicholson and 0 mentions for Cairn Homes. Crest Nicholson's average media sentiment score of 1.18 beat Cairn Homes' score of 0.00 indicating that Crest Nicholson is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Cairn Homes	Neutral
Crest Nicholson	Positive

Is CRN or CRST more profitable?

Cairn Homes has a net margin of 13.72% compared to Crest Nicholson's net margin of -4.21%. Cairn Homes' return on equity of 14.73% beat Crest Nicholson's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cairn Homes	13.72%	14.73%	7.83%
Crest Nicholson	-4.21%	-3.47%	0.16%

Which has better valuation & earnings, CRN or CRST?

Cairn Homes has higher revenue and earnings than Crest Nicholson. Crest Nicholson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cairn Homes, 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
Cairn Homes	£928.63M	1.55	£127.43M	£14.30	13.56
Crest Nicholson	£632.51M	0.80	-£26.61M	-£10.39	-18.96

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in CRN or CRST?

Crest Nicholson received 472 more outperform votes than Cairn Homes when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 77.42% of users gave Cairn Homes an outperform vote while only 68.52% of users gave Crest Nicholson an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Cairn Homes	Outperform Votes 96 77.42%	Underperform Votes 28 22.58%
Crest Nicholson	Outperform Votes 568 68.52%	Underperform Votes 261 31.48%

Is CRN or CRST a better dividend stock?

Cairn Homes pays an annual dividend of GBX 6 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Crest Nicholson pays an annual dividend of GBX 13 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. Cairn Homes pays out 42.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crest Nicholson pays out -125.2% 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. Crest Nicholson is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Cairn Homes beats Crest Nicholson on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.