UIL (UTL) Competitors

UIL (LON:UTL) and Ashtead Technology (LON:AT) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, community ranking, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Is UTL or AT a better dividend stock?

UIL pays an annual dividend of GBX 8 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. Ashtead Technology pays an annual dividend of GBX 1 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. UIL pays out -26.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ashtead Technology pays out 3.2% 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. UIL is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has more risk & volatility, UTL or AT?

UIL has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashtead Technology has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor UTL or AT?

UIL received 76 more outperform votes than Ashtead Technology when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 100.00% of users gave Ashtead Technology an outperform vote while only 76.99% of users gave UIL an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
UIL	Outperform Votes 87 76.99%	Underperform Votes 26 23.01%
Ashtead Technology	Outperform Votes 11 100.00%	Underperform Votes No Votes

Is UTL or AT more profitable?

UIL has a net margin of 156.15% compared to Ashtead Technology's net margin of 17.37%. Ashtead Technology's return on equity of 23.56% beat UIL's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UIL	156.15%	-16.21%	-3.94%
Ashtead Technology	17.37%	23.56%	13.14%

Does the media favor UTL or AT?

In the previous week, Ashtead Technology had 3 more articles in the media than UIL. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Ashtead Technology and 1 mentions for UIL. Ashtead Technology's average media sentiment score of 0.19 beat UIL's score of 0.00 indicating that Ashtead Technology is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
UIL	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Ashtead Technology	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do analysts rate UTL or AT?

Ashtead Technology has a consensus target price of GBX 830, suggesting a potential upside of 68.53%. Given Ashtead Technology's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ashtead Technology is more favorable than UIL.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UIL	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Ashtead Technology	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Do insiders & institutionals believe in UTL or AT?

75.9% of Ashtead Technology shares are held by institutional investors. 78.0% of UIL shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Ashtead Technology shares are held 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.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, UTL or AT?

Ashtead Technology has higher revenue and earnings than UIL. UIL is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashtead Technology, 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
UIL	-£16.90M	-6.08	-£26.39M	-£29.84	-3.89
Ashtead Technology	£139.68M	2.80	£24.26M	£30.98	15.90

Summary

Ashtead Technology beats UIL on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.