WPP vs. PSON, AUTO, INF, RMV, AAF, ITV, VOD, FOUR, ASCL, and YOU
Should you be buying WPP stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of WPP include Pearson (PSON), Auto Trader Group (AUTO), Informa (INF), Rightmove (RMV), Airtel Africa (AAF), ITV (ITV), Vodafone Group Public (VOD), 4imprint Group (FOUR), Ascential (ASCL), and YouGov (YOU). These companies are all part of the "communication services" sector.
WPP (LON:WPP) and Pearson (LON:PSON) are both mid-cap communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.
WPP received 610 more outperform votes than Pearson when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 78.56% of users gave WPP an outperform vote while only 54.50% of users gave Pearson an outperform vote.
Pearson has a net margin of 10.29% compared to WPP's net margin of 0.74%. Pearson's return on equity of 9.04% beat WPP's return on equity.
WPP currently has a consensus target price of GBX 961, suggesting a potential upside of 14.68%. Pearson has a consensus target price of GBX 1,092.50, suggesting a potential upside of 9.91%. Given WPP's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe WPP is more favorable than Pearson.
In the previous week, WPP and WPP both had 2 articles in the media. Pearson's average media sentiment score of 0.53 beat WPP's score of 0.00 indicating that Pearson is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
WPP pays an annual dividend of GBX 39 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Pearson pays an annual dividend of GBX 23 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. WPP pays out 39,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Pearson pays out 4,339.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
WPP has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pearson has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.
57.2% of WPP shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.0% of Pearson shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of WPP shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Pearson shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Pearson has lower revenue, but higher earnings than WPP. Pearson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WPP, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
WPP beats Pearson on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WPP and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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