SMWH vs. HWDN, DPH, IGG, CTY, GNS, CAR, PRP, AUK, BAY, and STG
Should you be buying WH Smith stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of WH Smith include Howden Joinery Group (HWDN), Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH), IG Group (IGG), City of London (CTY), Genus (GNS), Carclo (CAR), Prime People (PRP), Aukett Swanke Group (AUK), Bay Capital (BAY), and Strip Tinning (STG). These companies are all part of the "personal services" industry.
WH Smith vs.
WH Smith (LON:SMWH) and Howden Joinery Group (LON:HWDN) are both consumer cyclical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.
91.2% of WH Smith shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.6% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of WH Smith shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Howden Joinery Group has higher revenue and earnings than WH Smith. Howden Joinery Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WH Smith, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
WH Smith presently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,456.67, indicating a potential upside of 41.29%. Howden Joinery Group has a consensus target price of GBX 971.33, indicating a potential upside of 14.95%. Given WH Smith's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe WH Smith is more favorable than Howden Joinery Group.
Howden Joinery Group has a net margin of 10.82% compared to WH Smith's net margin of 3.44%. Howden Joinery Group's return on equity of 25.70% beat WH Smith's return on equity.
In the previous week, Howden Joinery Group had 4 more articles in the media than WH Smith. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Howden Joinery Group and 1 mentions for WH Smith. WH Smith's average media sentiment score of 1.69 beat Howden Joinery Group's score of 1.10 indicating that WH Smith is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Howden Joinery Group received 187 more outperform votes than WH Smith when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.37% of users gave Howden Joinery Group an outperform vote while only 62.55% of users gave WH Smith an outperform vote.
WH Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Howden Joinery Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 21 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. WH Smith pays out 66.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Howden Joinery Group pays out 45.0% 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.
WH Smith has a beta of 1.67, indicating that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Howden Joinery Group has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Howden Joinery Group beats WH Smith on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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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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This page (LON:SMWH) was last updated on 5/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
