ASH vs. RPM, CE, ALB, BCPC, NEU, FUL, SXT, KWR, IOSP, and MTX
Should you be buying Ashland stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ashland include RPM International (RPM), Celanese (CE), Albemarle (ALB), Balchem (BCPC), NewMarket (NEU), H.B. Fuller (FUL), Sensient Technologies (SXT), Quaker Chemical (KWR), Innospec (IOSP), and Minerals Technologies (MTX). These companies are all part of the "specialty chemicals" industry.
RPM International (NYSE:RPM) and Ashland (NYSE:ASH) are both construction companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.
In the previous week, RPM International had 9 more articles in the media than Ashland. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for RPM International and 26 mentions for Ashland. RPM International's average media sentiment score of 0.19 beat Ashland's score of -0.10 indicating that Ashland is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
RPM International has higher revenue and earnings than Ashland. Ashland is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than RPM International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
80.9% of RPM International shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.0% of Ashland shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of RPM International shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Ashland shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Ashland received 150 more outperform votes than RPM International when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 68.64% of users gave Ashland an outperform vote while only 59.12% of users gave RPM International an outperform vote.
RPM International presently has a consensus target price of $120.55, suggesting a potential upside of 2.54%. Ashland has a consensus target price of $107.88, suggesting a potential upside of 12.15%. Given RPM International's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ashland is more favorable than RPM International.
RPM International has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Ashland has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Ashland has a net margin of 9.09% compared to Ashland's net margin of 7.61%. Ashland's return on equity of 26.72% beat RPM International's return on equity.
RPM International pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Ashland pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. RPM International pays out 42.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ashland pays out 43.0% 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. RPM International has increased its dividend for 50 consecutive years and Ashland has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years.
Summary
RPM International beats Ashland on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ASH 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 NYSE 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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