ESCO Technologies (ESE) Competitors

Snap-on (NYSE:SNA) and ESCO Technologies (NYSE:ESE) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, risk, community ranking and valuation.

Do analysts recommend SNA or ESE?

Snap-on currently has a consensus price target of $350.83, suggesting a potential upside of 8.88%. ESCO Technologies has a consensus price target of $187.50, suggesting a potential upside of 5.39%. Given Snap-on's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Snap-on is more favorable than ESCO Technologies.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Snap-on	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
ESCO Technologies	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is SNA or ESE a better dividend stock?

Snap-on pays an annual dividend of $8.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. ESCO Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Snap-on pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ESCO Technologies pays out 7.0% 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. Snap-on has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Snap-on is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is SNA or ESE more profitable?

Snap-on has a net margin of 21.71% compared to ESCO Technologies' net margin of 10.44%. Snap-on's return on equity of 19.20% beat ESCO Technologies' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Snap-on	21.71%	19.20%	13.13%
ESCO Technologies	10.44%	9.91%	6.63%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SNA or ESE?

ESCO Technologies received 40 more outperform votes than Snap-on when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.65% of users gave Snap-on an outperform vote while only 59.05% of users gave ESCO Technologies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Snap-on	Outperform Votes 381 61.65%	Underperform Votes 237 38.35%
ESCO Technologies	Outperform Votes 421 59.05%	Underperform Votes 292 40.95%

Does the media prefer SNA or ESE?

In the previous week, Snap-on had 15 more articles in the media than ESCO Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for Snap-on and 11 mentions for ESCO Technologies. ESCO Technologies' average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat Snap-on's score of 0.55 indicating that ESCO Technologies is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Snap-on	10 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ESCO Technologies	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better valuation and earnings, SNA or ESE?

Snap-on has higher revenue and earnings than ESCO Technologies. Snap-on is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ESCO Technologies, 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
Snap-on	$4.67B	3.61	$1.04B	$19.10	16.87
ESCO Technologies	$1.07B	4.29	$101.88M	$4.56	39.01

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in SNA or ESE?

84.9% of Snap-on shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.7% of ESCO Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of Snap-on shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of ESCO Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, SNA or ESE?

Snap-on has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ESCO Technologies has a beta of 1.19, suggesting that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Snap-on beats ESCO Technologies on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.