Empiric Student Property (ESP) Competitors

Spire Healthcare Group (LON:SPI) and Empiric Student Property (LON:ESP) are both small-cap electronic equipment companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, SPI or ESP?

Empiric Student Property has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Spire Healthcare Group. Empiric Student Property is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Spire Healthcare 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
Spire Healthcare Group	£1.44B	0.62	£28.15M	£7.03	31.60
Empiric Student Property	£89.58M	6.80	£58.84M	£8.90	10.33

Is SPI or ESP a better dividend stock?

Spire Healthcare Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 3 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Empiric Student Property pays an annual dividend of GBX 4 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Spire Healthcare Group pays out 42.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Empiric Student Property pays out 44.9% 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.

Does the media prefer SPI or ESP?

In the previous week, Empiric Student Property had 6 more articles in the media than Spire Healthcare Group. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Empiric Student Property and 1 mentions for Spire Healthcare Group. Empiric Student Property's average media sentiment score of 0.43 beat Spire Healthcare Group's score of 0.04 indicating that Empiric Student Property is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Spire Healthcare Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Empiric Student Property	0 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is SPI or ESP more profitable?

Empiric Student Property has a net margin of 65.69% compared to Spire Healthcare Group's net margin of 1.96%. Empiric Student Property's return on equity of 7.23% beat Spire Healthcare Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Spire Healthcare Group	1.96%	3.82%	3.73%
Empiric Student Property	65.69%	7.23%	2.26%

Do analysts rate SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group presently has a consensus price target of GBX 294.33, suggesting a potential upside of 32.58%. Given Spire Healthcare Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Spire Healthcare Group is more favorable than Empiric Student Property.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Spire Healthcare Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Empiric Student Property	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in SPI or ESP?

50.4% of Spire Healthcare Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.4% of Empiric Student Property shares are held by institutional investors. 34.7% of Spire Healthcare Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Empiric Student Property shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Empiric Student Property has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Empiric Student Property beats Spire Healthcare Group on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.