Northrop Grumman (NOC) Competitors

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) and GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) are both large-cap aerospace companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Do analysts rate NOC or GE?

Northrop Grumman currently has a consensus target price of $545.31, indicating a potential upside of 11.65%. GE Aerospace has a consensus target price of $221.15, indicating a potential downside of 9.87%. Given Northrop Grumman's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Northrop Grumman is more favorable than GE Aerospace.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northrop Grumman	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.61
GE Aerospace	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer NOC or GE?

GE Aerospace received 1459 more outperform votes than Northrop Grumman when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 75.44% of users gave GE Aerospace an outperform vote while only 62.28% of users gave Northrop Grumman an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Northrop Grumman	Outperform Votes 682 62.28%	Underperform Votes 413 37.72%
GE Aerospace	Outperform Votes 2141 75.44%	Underperform Votes 697 24.56%

Which has more risk & volatility, NOC or GE?

Northrop Grumman has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its share price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GE Aerospace has a beta of 1.38, indicating that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor NOC or GE?

In the previous week, GE Aerospace had 36 more articles in the media than Northrop Grumman. MarketBeat recorded 64 mentions for GE Aerospace and 28 mentions for Northrop Grumman. GE Aerospace's average media sentiment score of 1.13 beat Northrop Grumman's score of 1.05 indicating that GE Aerospace is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Northrop Grumman	20 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
GE Aerospace	44 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is NOC or GE more profitable?

GE Aerospace has a net margin of 14.31% compared to Northrop Grumman's net margin of 10.17%. Northrop Grumman's return on equity of 26.24% beat GE Aerospace's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northrop Grumman	10.17%	26.24%	7.96%
GE Aerospace	14.31%	22.19%	3.66%

Which has better earnings and valuation, NOC or GE?

GE Aerospace has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than GE Aerospace, 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
Northrop Grumman	$40.37B	1.74	$4.17B	$25.34	19.27
GE Aerospace	$39.68B	6.59	$6.56B	$6.43	38.16

Is NOC or GE a better dividend stock?

Northrop Grumman pays an annual dividend of $9.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. GE Aerospace pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Northrop Grumman pays out 36.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. GE Aerospace pays out 22.4% 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. Northrop Grumman has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years and GE Aerospace has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Northrop Grumman is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of NOC or GE?

83.4% of Northrop Grumman shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of GE Aerospace shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Northrop Grumman shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of GE Aerospace shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

GE Aerospace beats Northrop Grumman on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.