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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Skip ChartMedia 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 10/7/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff