Empiric Student Property (ESP) Competitors

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

Do insiders & institutionals believe in SPI or ESP?

49.7% of Spire Healthcare Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.3% of Empiric Student Property shares are held by institutional investors. 34.7% of Spire Healthcare Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Empiric Student Property shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has better 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	£1.36B	0.74	£27.30M	£0.07	3,578.57
Empiric Student Property	£81.60M	7.17	£53.60M	£0.09	1,076.67

Does the media favor SPI or ESP?

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. Spire Healthcare Group's average media sentiment score of 1.19 beat Empiric Student Property's score of 0.59 indicating that Spire Healthcare Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Spire Healthcare Group	Positive
Empiric Student Property	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group received 187 more outperform votes than Empiric Student Property when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.80% of users gave Empiric Student Property an outperform vote while only 60.82% of users gave Spire Healthcare Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Spire Healthcare Group	Outperform Votes 354 60.82%	Underperform Votes 228 39.18%
Empiric Student Property	Outperform Votes 167 66.80%	Underperform Votes 83 33.20%

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 2.01%. Empiric Student Property's return on equity of 7.32% beat Spire Healthcare Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Spire Healthcare Group	2.01%	3.81%	3.56%
Empiric Student Property	65.69%	7.32%	2.26%

Do analysts recommend SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group currently has a consensus target price of GBX 302.25, indicating a potential upside of 20.66%. Given Spire Healthcare Group's higher possible upside, equities research 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
Spire Healthcare Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	4 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)	N/A

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 1.2%. Empiric Student Property pays an annual dividend of GBX 4 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Spire Healthcare Group pays out 4,285.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Empiric Student Property pays out 4,444.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Which has more risk & volatility, SPI or ESP?

Spire Healthcare Group has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Empiric Student Property has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Spire Healthcare Group beats Empiric Student Property on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.