General Cable (BGC) Competitors

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) and General Cable (NYSE:BGC) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, community ranking, earnings, profitability, dividends, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of AYI or BGC?

98.2% of Acuity shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.1% of General Cable shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of Acuity shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 47.9% of General Cable shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer AYI or BGC?

Acuity currently has a consensus target price of $323.60, indicating a potential upside of 16.58%. General Cable has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 46.29%. Given General Cable's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe General Cable is more favorable than Acuity.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acuity	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
General Cable	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AYI or BGC?

Acuity received 447 more outperform votes than General Cable when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.54% of users gave Acuity an outperform vote while only 64.99% of users gave General Cable an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Acuity	Outperform Votes 718 67.54%	Underperform Votes 345 32.46%
General Cable	Outperform Votes 271 64.99%	Underperform Votes 146 35.01%

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, AYI or BGC?

Acuity has higher revenue and earnings than General Cable. Acuity is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than General Cable, 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
Acuity	$3.96B	2.17	$422.60M	$13.19	21.05
General Cable	$2.03B	2.33	$36.26M	$0.07	136.71

Is AYI or BGC more profitable?

Acuity has a net margin of 10.53% compared to General Cable's net margin of 1.74%. General Cable's return on equity of 48.53% beat Acuity's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acuity	10.53%	19.73%	11.93%
General Cable	1.74%	48.53%	10.49%

Does the media favor AYI or BGC?

In the previous week, Acuity had 12 more articles in the media than General Cable. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Acuity and 0 mentions for General Cable. Acuity's average media sentiment score of 1.03 beat General Cable's score of 0.00 indicating that Acuity is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Acuity	Positive
General Cable	Neutral

Is AYI or BGC a better dividend stock?

Acuity pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. General Cable pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Acuity pays out 5.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. General Cable pays out 57.1% 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. Acuity has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and General Cable has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Which has more risk and volatility, AYI or BGC?

Acuity has a beta of 1.6, suggesting that its stock price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Cable has a beta of 1.51, suggesting that its stock price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Acuity beats General Cable on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.