ITW vs. AIT, AOS, DCI, DE, DOV, GGG, IR, ITT, OI, and XYL
Should you be buying Illinois Tool Works stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Illinois Tool Works include Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), A. O. Smith (AOS), Donaldson (DCI), Deere & Company (DE), Dover (DOV), Graco (GGG), Ingersoll Rand (IR), ITT (ITT), O-I Glass (OI), and Xylem (XYL).
Illinois Tool Works vs. Its Competitors
Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) and Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and media sentiment.
Illinois Tool Works has a net margin of 21.31% compared to Applied Industrial Technologies' net margin of 8.61%. Illinois Tool Works' return on equity of 90.89% beat Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity.
Illinois Tool Works has higher revenue and earnings than Applied Industrial Technologies. Illinois Tool Works is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Applied Industrial Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
93.5% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.8% of Illinois Tool Works shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Illinois Tool Works shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Illinois Tool Works had 17 more articles in the media than Applied Industrial Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 38 mentions for Illinois Tool Works and 21 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies. Illinois Tool Works' average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Applied Industrial Technologies' score of 0.63 indicating that Illinois Tool Works is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Applied Industrial Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Illinois Tool Works pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 18.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Illinois Tool Works pays out 52.6% 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. Applied Industrial Technologies has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years and Illinois Tool Works has raised its dividend for 55 consecutive years. Illinois Tool Works is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Applied Industrial Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $285.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.35%. Illinois Tool Works has a consensus target price of $260.67, indicating a potential downside of 1.04%. Given Applied Industrial Technologies' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Applied Industrial Technologies is more favorable than Illinois Tool Works.
Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Illinois Tool Works has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Illinois Tool Works beats Applied Industrial Technologies on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ITW and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
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.
Illinois Tool Works Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:ITW) was last updated on 9/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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