GWW vs. FERG, JCI, IR, XYL, EMR, ROK, DOV, AXON, CTAS, and PH
Should you be buying W.W. Grainger stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of W.W. Grainger include Ferguson (FERG), Johnson Controls International (JCI), Ingersoll Rand (IR), Xylem (XYL), Emerson Electric (EMR), Rockwell Automation (ROK), Dover (DOV), Axon Enterprise (AXON), Cintas (CTAS), and Parker-Hannifin (PH). These companies are all part of the "industrial products" sector.
W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) and Ferguson (NASDAQ:FERG) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.
W.W. Grainger received 499 more outperform votes than Ferguson when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 54.10% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote while only 37.84% of users gave Ferguson an outperform vote.
W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.18, suggesting that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ferguson has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.
W.W. Grainger currently has a consensus target price of $938.89, suggesting a potential downside of 0.91%. Ferguson has a consensus target price of $166.50, suggesting a potential downside of 23.97%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Ferguson.
80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.0% of Ferguson shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Ferguson shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $7.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Ferguson pays an annual dividend of $3.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. W.W. Grainger pays out 20.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ferguson pays out 36.7% 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.
In the previous week, Ferguson had 12 more articles in the media than W.W. Grainger. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Ferguson and 9 mentions for W.W. Grainger. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.00 beat Ferguson's score of 0.28 indicating that W.W. Grainger is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Ferguson has higher revenue and earnings than W.W. Grainger. Ferguson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than W.W. Grainger, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
W.W. Grainger has a net margin of 10.94% compared to Ferguson's net margin of 6.00%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 54.31% beat Ferguson's return on equity.
Summary
W.W. Grainger beats Ferguson on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding GWW 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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