Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) Competitors

Smurfit Kappa Group (LON:SKG) and DS Smith (LON:SMDS) are both mid-cap consumer cyclical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, community ranking, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.

Do analysts recommend SKG or SMDS?

Smurfit Kappa Group presently has a consensus target price of GBX 3,615, suggesting a potential upside of 5.09%. DS Smith has a consensus target price of GBX 386.75, suggesting a potential upside of 11.78%. Given DS Smith's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe DS Smith is more favorable than Smurfit Kappa Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smurfit Kappa Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
DS Smith	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Which has more volatility and risk, SKG or SMDS?

Smurfit Kappa Group has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, DS Smith has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is SKG or SMDS more profitable?

Smurfit Kappa Group has a net margin of 6.72% compared to DS Smith's net margin of 6.37%. Smurfit Kappa Group's return on equity of 14.31% beat DS Smith's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smurfit Kappa Group	6.72%	14.31%	6.89%
DS Smith	6.37%	10.77%	4.39%

Do insiders and institutionals believe in SKG or SMDS?

73.3% of Smurfit Kappa Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.5% of DS Smith shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Smurfit Kappa Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of DS Smith shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is SKG or SMDS a better dividend stock?

Smurfit Kappa Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 131 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. DS Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 18 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Smurfit Kappa Group pays out 5,240.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. DS Smith pays out 5,294.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SKG or SMDS?

DS Smith received 425 more outperform votes than Smurfit Kappa Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 72.54% of users gave Smurfit Kappa Group an outperform vote while only 67.06% of users gave DS Smith an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Smurfit Kappa Group	Outperform Votes 251 72.54%	Underperform Votes 95 27.46%
DS Smith	Outperform Votes 676 67.06%	Underperform Votes 332 32.94%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, SKG or SMDS?

Smurfit Kappa Group has higher revenue and earnings than DS Smith. DS Smith is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Smurfit Kappa 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
Smurfit Kappa Group	£11.27B	0.79	£758M	£2.50	1,367.20
DS Smith	£7.43B	0.64	£463M	£0.34	1,014.71

Does the media prefer SKG or SMDS?

In the previous week, DS Smith had 5 more articles in the media than Smurfit Kappa Group. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for DS Smith and 0 mentions for Smurfit Kappa Group. Smurfit Kappa Group's average media sentiment score of 0.59 beat DS Smith's score of 0.14 indicating that Smurfit Kappa Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Smurfit Kappa Group	Positive
DS Smith	Neutral

Summary

Smurfit Kappa Group beats DS Smith on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.