PSON vs. INF, AUTO, WPP, RMV, AAF, ITV, FOUR, ZEG, VOD, and FUTR
Should you be buying Pearson stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Pearson include Informa (INF), Auto Trader Group (AUTO), WPP (WPP), Rightmove (RMV), Airtel Africa (AAF), ITV (ITV), 4imprint Group (FOUR), Zegona Communications (ZEG), Vodafone Group Public (VOD), and Future (FUTR). These companies are all part of the "communication services" sector.
Informa (LON:INF) and Pearson (LON:PSON) are both communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, community ranking, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.
Informa has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pearson has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Informa pays an annual dividend of GBX 18 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Pearson pays an annual dividend of GBX 23 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Informa pays out 7,200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Pearson pays out 4,339.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Pearson is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Informa currently has a consensus price target of GBX 865.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.97%. Pearson has a consensus price target of GBX 1,108.33, indicating a potential upside of 11.61%. Given Informa's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Pearson is more favorable than Informa.
Informa has a net margin of 13.14% compared to Informa's net margin of 10.29%. Informa's return on equity of 9.04% beat Pearson's return on equity.
79.8% of Informa shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.9% of Pearson shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Informa shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Pearson shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Pearson received 13 more outperform votes than Informa when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.81% of users gave Informa an outperform vote while only 54.46% of users gave Pearson an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Informa had 9 more articles in the media than Pearson. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Informa and 2 mentions for Pearson. Informa's average media sentiment score of 0.80 beat Pearson's score of 0.45 indicating that Pearson is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Informa has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Pearson. Pearson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Informa, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Pearson beats Informa on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding PSON and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of LON and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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