Grafton Group (GFTU) Competitors

Grafton Group (LON:GFTU) and Diploma (LON:DPLM) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in GFTU or DPLM?

Grafton Group received 67 more outperform votes than Diploma when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.71% of users gave Diploma an outperform vote while only 57.59% of users gave Grafton Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Grafton Group	Outperform Votes 349 57.59%	Underperform Votes 257 42.41%
Diploma	Outperform Votes 282 61.71%	Underperform Votes 175 38.29%

Is GFTU or DPLM more profitable?

Diploma has a net margin of 9.25% compared to Grafton Group's net margin of 5.79%. Diploma's return on equity of 13.18% beat Grafton Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grafton Group	5.79%	8.08%	3.60%
Diploma	9.25%	13.18%	8.32%

Do analysts prefer GFTU or DPLM?

Grafton Group currently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,100, indicating a potential upside of 9.00%. Diploma has a consensus target price of GBX 4,760, indicating a potential upside of 2.15%. Given Grafton Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Grafton Group is more favorable than Diploma.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grafton Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Diploma	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Does the media favor GFTU or DPLM?

In the previous week, Diploma had 2 more articles in the media than Grafton Group. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Diploma and 0 mentions for Grafton Group. Diploma's average media sentiment score of 0.35 beat Grafton Group's score of 0.00 indicating that Diploma is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Grafton Group	Neutral
Diploma	Neutral

Is GFTU or DPLM a better dividend stock?

Grafton Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 37 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Diploma pays an annual dividend of GBX 57 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Grafton Group pays out 56.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Diploma pays out 65.5% 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. Grafton Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in GFTU or DPLM?

58.3% of Grafton Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.5% of Diploma shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.5% of Grafton Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Diploma shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, GFTU or DPLM?

Grafton Group has higher revenue and earnings than Diploma. Grafton 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
Grafton Group	£2.21B	0.90	£127.90M	£65.21	15.48
Diploma	£1.25B	4.98	£115.40M	£87.00	53.56

Which has more risk and volatility, GFTU or DPLM?

Grafton Group has a beta of 1.6, suggesting that its stock price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Diploma has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Diploma beats Grafton Group on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.