MSM vs. WCC, AIT, BECN, AL, GATX, RUSHA, HEES, MRC, BXC, and DXPE
Should you be buying MSC Industrial Direct stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of MSC Industrial Direct include WESCO International (WCC), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Air Lease (AL), GATX (GATX), Rush Enterprises (RUSHA), H&E Equipment Services (HEES), MRC Global (MRC), BlueLinx (BXC), and DXP Enterprises (DXPE). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.
MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) and WESCO International (NYSE:WCC) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, community ranking, risk, media sentiment and profitability.
MSC Industrial Direct pays an annual dividend of $3.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. WESCO International pays an annual dividend of $1.65 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. MSC Industrial Direct pays out 64.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WESCO International pays out 13.7% 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.
79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of WESCO International shares are held by institutional investors. 18.8% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of WESCO International 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.
WESCO International has higher revenue and earnings than MSC Industrial Direct. WESCO International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSC Industrial Direct, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
WESCO International received 193 more outperform votes than MSC Industrial Direct when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.11% of users gave WESCO International an outperform vote while only 52.72% of users gave MSC Industrial Direct an outperform vote.
MSC Industrial Direct presently has a consensus target price of $90.20, suggesting a potential upside of 2.93%. WESCO International has a consensus target price of $191.17, suggesting a potential upside of 12.12%. Given WESCO International's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe WESCO International is more favorable than MSC Industrial Direct.
In the previous week, WESCO International had 2 more articles in the media than MSC Industrial Direct. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for WESCO International and 4 mentions for MSC Industrial Direct. MSC Industrial Direct's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat WESCO International's score of 0.14 indicating that MSC Industrial Direct is being referred to more favorably in the media.
MSC Industrial Direct has a net margin of 7.44% compared to WESCO International's net margin of 3.08%. MSC Industrial Direct's return on equity of 21.31% beat WESCO International's return on equity.
MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WESCO International has a beta of 2.06, meaning that its stock price is 106% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
WESCO International beats MSC Industrial Direct on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MSM and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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