Diploma (DPLM) Competitors

Diploma (LON:DPLM) and Howden Joinery Group (LON:HWDN) are both mid-cap personal services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of DPLM or HWDN?

79.5% of Diploma shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Diploma shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend DPLM or HWDN?

Diploma presently has a consensus price target of GBX 5,238, suggesting a potential downside of 4.07%. Howden Joinery Group has a consensus price target of GBX 919.67, suggesting a potential upside of 10.96%. Given Howden Joinery Group's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Howden Joinery Group is more favorable than Diploma.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Diploma	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40
Howden Joinery Group	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, DPLM or HWDN?

Howden Joinery Group has higher revenue and earnings than Diploma. Howden Joinery Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Diploma, 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
Diploma	£1.45B	5.03	£115.40M	£1.24	4,392.60
Howden Joinery Group	£2.35B	1.91	£253.42M	£0.46	1,790.06

Which has more volatility and risk, DPLM or HWDN?

Diploma has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Howden Joinery Group has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is DPLM or HWDN more profitable?

Howden Joinery Group has a net margin of 10.82% compared to Diploma's net margin of 9.25%. Howden Joinery Group's return on equity of 25.70% beat Diploma's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Diploma	9.25%	13.18%	8.32%
Howden Joinery Group	10.82%	25.70%	10.70%

Is DPLM or HWDN a better dividend stock?

Diploma pays an annual dividend of GBX 0.59 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. Howden Joinery Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 0.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. Diploma pays out 47.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Howden Joinery Group pays out 45.8% 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. Howden Joinery Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media refer more to DPLM or HWDN?

In the previous week, Diploma had 3 more articles in the media than Howden Joinery Group. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Diploma and 5 mentions for Howden Joinery Group. Howden Joinery Group's average media sentiment score of 0.97 beat Diploma's score of 0.33 indicating that Howden Joinery Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Diploma	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Howden Joinery Group	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Howden Joinery Group beats Diploma on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.