ECL vs. SHW, IFF, CE, RPM, ALB, BCPC, NEU, ASH, FUL, and SXT
Should you be buying Ecolab stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ecolab include Sherwin-Williams (SHW), International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Celanese (CE), RPM International (RPM), Albemarle (ALB), Balchem (BCPC), NewMarket (NEU), Ashland (ASH), H.B. Fuller (FUL), and Sensient Technologies (SXT). These companies are all part of the "specialty chemicals" industry.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) and Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, community ranking, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Sherwin-Williams has a net margin of 10.92% compared to Ecolab's net margin of 10.01%. Sherwin-Williams' return on equity of 75.58% beat Ecolab's return on equity.
74.9% of Ecolab shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Sherwin-Williams shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Ecolab shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Sherwin-Williams shares are owned 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.
Ecolab pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Sherwin-Williams pays an annual dividend of $2.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Ecolab pays out 42.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sherwin-Williams pays out 30.5% 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.
Sherwin-Williams has higher revenue and earnings than Ecolab. Sherwin-Williams is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ecolab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Ecolab presently has a consensus price target of $244.06, indicating a potential downside of 0.48%. Sherwin-Williams has a consensus price target of $355.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.66%. Given Sherwin-Williams' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sherwin-Williams is more favorable than Ecolab.
Sherwin-Williams received 142 more outperform votes than Ecolab when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.88% of users gave Ecolab an outperform vote while only 64.40% of users gave Sherwin-Williams an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Sherwin-Williams had 44 more articles in the media than Ecolab. MarketBeat recorded 57 mentions for Sherwin-Williams and 13 mentions for Ecolab. Ecolab's average media sentiment score of 0.91 beat Sherwin-Williams' score of 0.69 indicating that Ecolab is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Ecolab has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sherwin-Williams has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Sherwin-Williams beats Ecolab on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ECL 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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