MSM vs. AIT, WCC, BECN, AL, GATX, RUSHA, HEES, DXPE, MRC, and WLFC
Should you be buying MSC Industrial Direct stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of MSC Industrial Direct include Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), WESCO International (WCC), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Air Lease (AL), GATX (GATX), Rush Enterprises (RUSHA), H&E Equipment Services (HEES), DXP Enterprises (DXPE), MRC Global (MRC), and Willis Lease Finance (WLFC). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.
MSC Industrial Direct vs.
Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) and MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability, media sentiment and valuation.
Applied Industrial Technologies has a net margin of 8.62% compared to MSC Industrial Direct's net margin of 6.21%. Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity of 22.37% beat MSC Industrial Direct's return on equity.
Applied Industrial Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. MSC Industrial Direct pays an annual dividend of $3.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 18.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MSC Industrial Direct pays out 89.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Applied Industrial Technologies has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years and MSC Industrial Direct has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.
In the previous week, Applied Industrial Technologies had 8 more articles in the media than MSC Industrial Direct. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies and 10 mentions for MSC Industrial Direct. MSC Industrial Direct's average media sentiment score of 1.66 beat Applied Industrial Technologies' score of 1.59 indicating that MSC Industrial Direct is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
MSC Industrial Direct received 133 more outperform votes than Applied Industrial Technologies when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.60% of users gave Applied Industrial Technologies an outperform vote while only 52.49% of users gave MSC Industrial Direct an outperform vote.
Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Applied Industrial Technologies presently has a consensus price target of $285.00, suggesting a potential upside of 27.76%. MSC Industrial Direct has a consensus price target of $82.20, suggesting a potential upside of 3.95%. Given Applied Industrial Technologies' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Applied Industrial Technologies is more favorable than MSC Industrial Direct.
93.5% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Applied Industrial Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than MSC Industrial Direct. MSC Industrial Direct 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.
Summary
Applied Industrial Technologies beats MSC Industrial Direct on 17 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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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.
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This page (NYSE:MSM) was last updated on 5/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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