MGRC vs. UNF, KAR, HCSG, CTAS, CPRT, IRM, UPBD, AFG, HST, and GL
Should you be buying McGrath RentCorp stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of McGrath RentCorp include Unifirst (UNF), OPENLANE (KAR), Healthcare Services Group (HCSG), Cintas (CTAS), Copart (CPRT), Iron Mountain (IRM), Upbound Group (UPBD), American Financial Group (AFG), Host Hotels & Resorts (HST), and Globe Life (GL).
McGrath RentCorp vs. Its Competitors
Unifirst (NYSE:UNF) and McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) are both mid-cap diversified support services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.
Unifirst has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McGrath RentCorp has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.
McGrath RentCorp has a net margin of 26.81% compared to Unifirst's net margin of 6.18%. McGrath RentCorp's return on equity of 13.52% beat Unifirst's return on equity.
Unifirst presently has a consensus price target of $179.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.45%. McGrath RentCorp has a consensus price target of $147.50, suggesting a potential upside of 24.18%. Given McGrath RentCorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe McGrath RentCorp is more favorable than Unifirst.
In the previous week, McGrath RentCorp had 2 more articles in the media than Unifirst. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for McGrath RentCorp and 4 mentions for Unifirst. Unifirst's average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat McGrath RentCorp's score of 0.83 indicating that Unifirst is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Unifirst pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. McGrath RentCorp pays an annual dividend of $1.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Unifirst pays out 17.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. McGrath RentCorp pays out 18.9% 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. Unifirst has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years and McGrath RentCorp has raised its dividend for 33 consecutive years. McGrath RentCorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
McGrath RentCorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Unifirst. McGrath RentCorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Unifirst, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
78.2% of Unifirst shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of McGrath RentCorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Unifirst shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of McGrath RentCorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
McGrath RentCorp beats Unifirst on 14 of the 19 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 MGRC 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 NASDAQ 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 (NASDAQ:MGRC) was last updated on 9/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff