Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) and ESCO Technologies (NYSE:ESE) are both industrial products companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Stanley Black & Decker and ESCO Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Stanley Black & Decker | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 2.69 |
| ESCO Technologies | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
Stanley Black & Decker currently has a consensus target price of $189.3077, indicating a potential downside of 7.27%. Given Stanley Black & Decker's higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Stanley Black & Decker is more favorable than ESCO Technologies.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Stanley Black & Decker and ESCO Technologies' revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Stanley Black & Decker | $14.44 billion | 2.27 | $955.80 million | $8.40 | 24.30 |
| ESCO Technologies | $732.91 million | 3.96 | $101.98 million | $2.76 | 40.36 |
Stanley Black & Decker has higher revenue and earnings than ESCO Technologies. Stanley Black & Decker is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ESCO Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Stanley Black & Decker and ESCO Technologies' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Stanley Black & Decker | 6.98% | 15.05% | 5.46% |
| ESCO Technologies | 13.91% | 7.73% | 5.09% |
Risk and Volatility
Stanley Black & Decker has a beta of 1.47, meaning that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ESCO Technologies has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
85.4% of Stanley Black & Decker shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of ESCO Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Stanley Black & Decker shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of ESCO Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Dividends
Stanley Black & Decker pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. ESCO Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Stanley Black & Decker pays out 33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ESCO Technologies pays out 11.6% 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. Stanley Black & Decker has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years and ESCO Technologies has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Stanley Black & Decker is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
Stanley Black & Decker beats ESCO Technologies on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
