Core & Main (CNM) Competitors

Ferguson (NASDAQ:FERG) and Core & Main (NYSE:CNM) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and media sentiment.

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of FERG or CNM?

82.0% of Ferguson shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.2% of Core & Main shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Ferguson shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of Core & Main shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Is FERG or CNM more profitable?

Core & Main has a net margin of 5.71% compared to Ferguson's net margin of 5.68%. Ferguson's return on equity of 34.63% beat Core & Main's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ferguson	5.68%	34.63%	11.73%
Core & Main	5.71%	24.71%	7.00%

Which has more risk & volatility, FERG or CNM?

Ferguson has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Core & Main has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in FERG or CNM?

Ferguson received 17 more outperform votes than Core & Main when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 47.97% of users gave Ferguson an outperform vote while only 45.76% of users gave Core & Main an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ferguson	Outperform Votes 71 47.97%	Underperform Votes 77 52.03%
Core & Main	Outperform Votes 54 45.76%	Underperform Votes 64 54.24%

Do analysts prefer FERG or CNM?

Ferguson presently has a consensus price target of $199.38, suggesting a potential upside of 17.56%. Core & Main has a consensus price target of $57.55, suggesting a potential upside of 9.13%. Given Ferguson's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Ferguson is more favorable than Core & Main.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ferguson	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Core & Main	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.55

Which has higher earnings and valuation, FERG or CNM?

Ferguson has higher revenue and earnings than Core & Main. Ferguson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Core & Main, 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
Ferguson	$29.90B	1.13	$1.74B	$8.13	20.86
Core & Main	$7.44B	1.40	$371M	$2.12	24.87

Does the media refer more to FERG or CNM?

In the previous week, Ferguson had 22 more articles in the media than Core & Main. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for Ferguson and 17 mentions for Core & Main. Core & Main's average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat Ferguson's score of 0.53 indicating that Core & Main is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ferguson	16 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	17 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Core & Main	15 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Ferguson beats Core & Main on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.