MLI vs. WIRE, FLS, ADT, TKR, AA, CWST, SON, ZWS, MSM, and ESAB
Should you be buying Mueller Industries stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Mueller Industries include Encore Wire (WIRE), Flowserve (FLS), ADT (ADT), Timken (TKR), Alcoa (AA), Casella Waste Systems (CWST), Sonoco Products (SON), Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (ZWS), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), and ESAB (ESAB). These companies are all part of the "industrial products" sector.
Encore Wire (NASDAQ:WIRE) and Mueller Industries (NYSE:MLI) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, media sentiment, valuation and community ranking.
99.8% of Encore Wire shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.5% of Mueller Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 5.6% of Encore Wire shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Mueller Industries shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Encore Wire presently has a consensus price target of $237.50, indicating a potential downside of 6.20%. Given Mueller Industries' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Encore Wire is more favorable than Mueller Industries.
Encore Wire pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. Mueller Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Encore Wire pays out 0.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mueller Industries pays out 15.1% 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. Mueller Industries has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Mueller Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Mueller Industries has a net margin of 17.63% compared to Mueller Industries' net margin of 14.50%. Encore Wire's return on equity of 27.59% beat Mueller Industries' return on equity.
Encore Wire has a beta of 1.3, meaning that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mueller Industries has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Encore Wire had 4 more articles in the media than Mueller Industries. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Encore Wire and 3 mentions for Mueller Industries. Encore Wire's average media sentiment score of 1.75 beat Mueller Industries' score of 1.04 indicating that Mueller Industries is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Mueller Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Encore Wire. Mueller Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Encore Wire, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Encore Wire received 78 more outperform votes than Mueller Industries when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.66% of users gave Mueller Industries an outperform vote while only 58.28% of users gave Encore Wire an outperform vote.
Summary
Encore Wire beats Mueller Industries 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 MLI and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis 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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