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WH Smith (SMWH) Competitors

WH Smith logo
GBX 651 -11.00 (-1.66%)
As of 12:00 PM Eastern

SMWH vs. CTY, GNS, KYGA, CAR, PRP, AUK, STG, BAY, PET, and MRM

Should you be buying WH Smith stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of WH Smith include City of London (CTY), Genus (GNS), Kerry Group (KYGA), Carclo (CAR), Prime People (PRP), Aukett Swanke Group (AUK), Strip Tinning (STG), Bay Capital (BAY), Petrel Resources (PET), and 16421 (MRM.L) (MRM). These companies are all part of the "personal services" industry.

WH Smith vs. Its Competitors

City of London (LON:CTY) and WH Smith (LON:SMWH) are both personal services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and earnings.

City of London has higher earnings, but lower revenue than WH Smith. City of London is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WH Smith, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
City of London£344.24M7.40£294.08M£0.69735.82
WH Smith£1.94B0.42£63.01M£0.0514,466.67

City of London pays an annual dividend of GBX 0.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. WH Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. City of London pays out 30.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WH Smith pays out 746.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

In the previous week, City of London had 9 more articles in the media than WH Smith. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for City of London and 2 mentions for WH Smith. City of London's average media sentiment score of 0.40 beat WH Smith's score of 0.08 indicating that City of London is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
City of London
4 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
6 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
WH Smith
0 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral

City of London has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WH Smith has a beta of 1.67, suggesting that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

City of London has a net margin of 95.77% compared to WH Smith's net margin of 3.44%. WH Smith's return on equity of 17.78% beat City of London's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
City of London95.77% 14.45% 4.00%
WH Smith 3.44%17.78%6.62%

8.7% of City of London shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.9% of WH Smith shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of City of London shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of WH Smith shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

WH Smith has a consensus price target of GBX 998.20, suggesting a potential upside of 53.33%. Given WH Smith's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WH Smith is more favorable than City of London.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
City of London
0 Sell rating(s)
0 Hold rating(s)
0 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
0.00
WH Smith
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
3 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.50

Summary

WH Smith beats City of London on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SMWH and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This 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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SMWH vs. The Competition

MetricWH SmithSpecialty Retail IndustryCyclical SectorLON Exchange
Market Cap£810.89M£4.22B£3.87B£2.61B
Dividend Yield5.01%4.07%3.53%5.29%
P/E Ratio14,466.67556.93626.054,431.92
Price / Sales0.4232.40247.5099,742.78
Price / Cash14.3614.9331.1627.90
Price / Book1.9111.953.608.66
Net Income£63.01M£132.07M£264.31M£5.89B
7 Day Performance-3.78%0.96%0.95%0.31%
1 Month Performance-2.62%2.96%0.90%5.78%
1 Year Performance-54.32%183.49%35.61%164.09%

WH Smith Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
SMWH
WH Smith
2.646 of 5 stars
GBX 651
-1.7%
GBX 998.20
+53.3%
-54.0%£810.89M£1.94B14,466.6714,935Dividend Increase
CTY
City of London
N/AGBX 507
+0.4%
N/A+16.5%£2.51B£222.11M1,147.06N/ADividend Announcement
GNS
Genus
2.3305 of 5 stars
GBX 2,370.19
+1.3%
GBX 2,900
+22.4%
+21.4%£1.56B£672.80M-38,228.87480
KYGA
Kerry Group
N/AGBX 76.28
-1.7%
N/A-18.4%£124.21M£6.97B17.3621,000Positive News
CAR
Carclo
N/AGBX 58.60
+0.3%
N/A+88.2%£43.02M£121.22M4,883.331,059
PRP
Prime People
N/AN/AN/AN/A£8.15M£19.72M10.9813,100Gap Down
AUK
Aukett Swanke Group
N/AN/AN/AN/A£5.46M£23.61M-6.3232,200Gap Down
STG
Strip Tinning
N/AGBX 24
+4.3%
N/A-37.1%£4.37M£8.78M-123.904,060High Trading Volume
BAY
Bay Capital
N/AGBX 4.10
flat
N/AN/A£2.87MN/A-518.992
PET
Petrel Resources
N/AGBX 0.77
-13.0%
N/A+14.1%£1.60MN/A-296.1590
MRM
16421 (MRM.L)
N/AN/AN/AN/A£0.00N/A0.00480High Trading Volume

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This page (LON:SMWH) was last updated on 10/7/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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