Newell Brands (NASDAQ:NWL) and John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:JW.B) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.
Volatility & Risk
Newell Brands has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, John Wiley & Sons has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Newell Brands and John Wiley & Sons' gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Newell Brands | $9.71 billion | 1.18 | $106.60 million | $1.70 | 15.86 |
| John Wiley & Sons | $1.83 billion | 1.72 | $-74,290,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
Newell Brands has higher revenue and earnings than John Wiley & Sons.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
86.5% of Newell Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Newell Brands shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.7% of John Wiley & Sons shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Newell Brands and John Wiley & Sons, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Newell Brands | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2.10 |
| John Wiley & Sons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
Newell Brands currently has a consensus target price of $22.60, indicating a potential downside of 16.20%. Given Newell Brands' higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Newell Brands is more favorable than John Wiley & Sons.
Profitability
This table compares Newell Brands and John Wiley & Sons' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Newell Brands | -1.11% | 17.83% | 4.80% |
| John Wiley & Sons | -2.03% | 15.03% | 4.93% |
Dividends
Newell Brands pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. John Wiley & Sons pays an annual dividend of $1.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Newell Brands pays out 54.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Newell Brands has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Newell Brands is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
Newell Brands beats John Wiley & Sons on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
