Empiric Student Property (ESP) Competitors

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

Is ESP or SPI a better dividend stock?

Empiric Student Property pays an annual dividend of GBX 4 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Spire Healthcare Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 3 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Empiric Student Property pays out 44.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Spire Healthcare Group pays out 42.7% 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.

Which has more volatility and risk, ESP or SPI?

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

Do institutionals & insiders believe in ESP or SPI?

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

Does the media favor ESP or SPI?

In the previous week, Spire Healthcare Group had 1 more articles in the media than Empiric Student Property. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for Spire Healthcare Group and 0 mentions for Empiric Student Property. Empiric Student Property's average media sentiment score of 0.00 beat Spire Healthcare Group's score of -0.14 indicating that Empiric Student Property is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Empiric Student Property	Neutral
Spire Healthcare Group	Neutral

Is ESP or SPI 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
Empiric Student Property	65.69%	7.23%	2.26%
Spire Healthcare Group	1.96%	3.82%	3.73%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, ESP or SPI?

Empiric Student Property has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
Empiric Student Property	£89.58M	7.59	£58.84M	£8.90	11.52
Spire Healthcare Group	£1.44B	0.63	£28.15M	£7.03	32.31

Do analysts recommend ESP or SPI?

Spire Healthcare Group has a consensus price target of GBX 300, indicating a potential upside of 32.16%. Given Spire Healthcare Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Spire Healthcare Group is more favorable than Empiric Student Property.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Empiric Student Property	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Spire Healthcare Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Summary

Empiric Student Property and Spire Healthcare Group tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.