GWW vs. VRSK, NSC, WAB, DOV, JBHT, J, CSL, ACM, OC, and PNR
Should you be buying W.W. Grainger stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of W.W. Grainger include Verisk Analytics (VRSK), Norfolk Southern (NSC), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB), Dover (DOV), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), Jacobs Solutions (J), Carlisle Companies (CSL), AECOM (ACM), Owens Corning (OC), and Pentair (PNR). These companies are all part of the "industrials" sector.
Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) and W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership, community ranking, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.
Verisk Analytics has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Verisk Analytics received 11 more outperform votes than W.W. Grainger when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.43% of users gave Verisk Analytics an outperform vote while only 54.43% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.
90.8% of Verisk Analytics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.2% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Verisk Analytics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.9% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by 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.
Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus target price of $248.23, indicating a potential upside of 6.19%. W.W. Grainger has a consensus target price of $749.57, indicating a potential downside of 7.16%. Given W.W. Grainger's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Verisk Analytics is more favorable than W.W. Grainger.
Verisk Analytics has a net margin of 19.04% compared to Verisk Analytics' net margin of 11.16%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 135.34% beat Verisk Analytics' return on equity.
W.W. Grainger has higher revenue and earnings than Verisk Analytics. W.W. Grainger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Verisk Analytics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Verisk Analytics pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $7.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Verisk Analytics pays out 40.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. W.W. Grainger pays out 20.7% 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. Verisk Analytics has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and W.W. Grainger has raised its dividend for 52 consecutive years. W.W. Grainger is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, W.W. Grainger had 7 more articles in the media than Verisk Analytics. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for W.W. Grainger and 5 mentions for Verisk Analytics. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat Verisk Analytics' score of 0.63 indicating that Verisk Analytics is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Verisk Analytics beats W.W. Grainger on 11 of the 21 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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