Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) Competitors

Smiths Group (LON:SMIN) and Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LON:SPX) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, community ranking and analyst recommendations.

Is SMIN or SPX more profitable?

Spirax-Sarco Engineering has a net margin of 11.57% compared to Smiths Group's net margin of 7.98%. Spirax-Sarco Engineering's return on equity of 16.58% beat Smiths Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smiths Group	7.98%	11.54%	6.47%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering	11.57%	16.58%	6.93%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, SMIN or SPX?

Smiths Group has higher revenue and earnings than Spirax-Sarco Engineering. Spirax-Sarco Engineering is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Smiths 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
Smiths Group	£3.07B	2.39	£245.01M	£71.98	29.93
Spirax-Sarco Engineering	£1.66B	2.58	£192.00M	£260.73	22.26

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SMIN or SPX?

Smiths Group received 70 more outperform votes than Spirax-Sarco Engineering when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.48% of users gave Smiths Group an outperform vote while only 54.25% of users gave Spirax-Sarco Engineering an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Smiths Group	Outperform Votes 453 62.48%	Underperform Votes 272 37.52%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering	Outperform Votes 383 54.25%	Underperform Votes 323 45.75%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of SMIN or SPX?

72.2% of Smiths Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.4% of Spirax-Sarco Engineering shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Smiths Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Spirax-Sarco Engineering shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate SMIN or SPX?

Smiths Group presently has a consensus price target of GBX 1,850, indicating a potential downside of 14.14%. Spirax-Sarco Engineering has a consensus price target of GBX 8,107.50, indicating a potential upside of 39.66%. Given Spirax-Sarco Engineering's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Spirax-Sarco Engineering is more favorable than Smiths Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smiths Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Spirax-Sarco Engineering	2 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83

Is SMIN or SPX a better dividend stock?

Smiths Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Spirax-Sarco Engineering pays an annual dividend of GBX 162 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Smiths Group pays out 61.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Spirax-Sarco Engineering pays out 62.1% 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.

Which has more volatility and risk, SMIN or SPX?

Smiths Group has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Spirax-Sarco Engineering has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer SMIN or SPX?

In the previous week, Smiths Group and Smiths Group both had 1 articles in the media. Smiths Group's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Spirax-Sarco Engineering's score of 0.32 indicating that Smiths Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Smiths Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Spirax-Sarco Engineering	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Spirax-Sarco Engineering beats Smiths Group on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.