H&E Equipment Services (HEES) Competitors

Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) and H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, community ranking and media sentiment.

Is AIT or HEES more profitable?

H&E Equipment Services has a net margin of 9.47% compared to Applied Industrial Technologies' net margin of 8.62%. H&E Equipment Services' return on equity of 25.46% beat Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Applied Industrial Technologies	8.62%	22.37%	13.03%
H&E Equipment Services	9.47%	25.46%	5.16%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, AIT or HEES?

Applied Industrial Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than H&E Equipment Services. Applied Industrial Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than H&E Equipment Services, 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
Applied Industrial Technologies	$4.50B	1.91	$385.76M	$9.96	22.61
H&E Equipment Services	$1.46B	2.39	$169.29M	$2.49	38.32

Which has more volatility & risk, AIT or HEES?

Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, H&E Equipment Services has a beta of 1.87, meaning that its stock price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate AIT or HEES?

Applied Industrial Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $285.00, indicating a potential upside of 26.56%. H&E Equipment Services has a consensus price target of $71.33, indicating a potential downside of 25.24%. Given Applied Industrial Technologies' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Applied Industrial Technologies is more favorable than H&E Equipment Services.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Applied Industrial Technologies	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.88
H&E Equipment Services	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in AIT or HEES?

93.5% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.1% of H&E Equipment Services shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of H&E Equipment Services shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AIT or HEES?

Applied Industrial Technologies and H&E Equipment Services both received 267 outperform votes by MarketBeat users. However, 59.60% of users gave Applied Industrial Technologies an outperform vote while only 56.09% of users gave H&E Equipment Services an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Applied Industrial Technologies	Outperform Votes 267 59.60%	Underperform Votes 181 40.40%
H&E Equipment Services	Outperform Votes 267 56.09%	Underperform Votes 209 43.91%

Is AIT or HEES a better dividend stock?

Applied Industrial Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. H&E Equipment Services pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 18.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. H&E Equipment Services pays out 44.2% 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. Applied Industrial Technologies has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Does the media refer more to AIT or HEES?

In the previous week, Applied Industrial Technologies had 6 more articles in the media than H&E Equipment Services. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies and 13 mentions for H&E Equipment Services. Applied Industrial Technologies' average media sentiment score of 1.48 beat H&E Equipment Services' score of 1.21 indicating that Applied Industrial Technologies is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Applied Industrial Technologies	19 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
H&E Equipment Services	9 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Applied Industrial Technologies beats H&E Equipment Services on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.