Lear (LEA) Competitors

Lear (NYSE:LEA) and Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) are both mid-cap auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, LEA or GNTX?

Lear has higher revenue and earnings than Gentex. Lear is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Gentex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lear	$23.31B	0.24	$506.60M	$8.53	12.51
Gentex	$2.31B	2.24	$404.49M	$1.71	13.50

Do analysts rate LEA or GNTX?

Lear currently has a consensus target price of $108.55, indicating a potential upside of 1.68%. Gentex has a consensus target price of $28.44, indicating a potential upside of 23.21%. Given Gentex's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Gentex is more favorable than Lear.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lear	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.23
Gentex	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.22

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of LEA or GNTX?

97.0% of Lear shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.8% of Gentex shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Lear shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Gentex shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer LEA or GNTX?

In the previous week, Lear had 13 more articles in the media than Gentex. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Lear and 9 mentions for Gentex. Gentex's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Lear's score of 0.61 indicating that Gentex is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lear	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Gentex	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, LEA or GNTX?

Lear has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gentex has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is LEA or GNTX more profitable?

Gentex has a net margin of 17.01% compared to Lear's net margin of 2.09%. Gentex's return on equity of 16.11% beat Lear's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lear	2.09%	14.53%	4.81%
Gentex	17.01%	16.11%	14.28%

Is LEA or GNTX a better dividend stock?

Lear pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Gentex pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Lear pays out 36.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Gentex pays out 28.1% 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.

Summary

Lear beats Gentex on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.