Pearson (PSO) Competitors

Pearson (NYSE:PSO) and News (NASDAQ:NWS) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Which has more risk & volatility, PSO or NWS?

Pearson has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, News has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of PSO or NWS?

2.1% of Pearson shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.6% of News shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Pearson shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.7% of News shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PSO or NWS?

Pearson received 105 more outperform votes than News when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 60.83% of users gave News an outperform vote while only 48.58% of users gave Pearson an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Pearson	Outperform Votes 411 48.58%	Underperform Votes 435 51.42%
News	Outperform Votes 306 60.83%	Underperform Votes 197 39.17%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, PSO or NWS?

Pearson has higher earnings, but lower revenue than News. Pearson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than News, 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
Pearson	$3.55B	2.72	$470.19M	$0.94	15.54
News	$10.27B	1.73	$266M	$0.86	36.45

Does the media favor PSO or NWS?

In the previous week, News had 1 more articles in the media than Pearson. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for News and 9 mentions for Pearson. News' average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat Pearson's score of 0.61 indicating that News is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Pearson	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
News	3 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is PSO or NWS a better dividend stock?

Pearson pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. News pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Pearson pays out 46.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. News pays out 23.3% 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.

Do analysts prefer PSO or NWS?

Pearson presently has a consensus target price of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 23.25%. Given Pearson's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Pearson is more favorable than News.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pearson	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.50
News	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	4.00

Is PSO or NWS more profitable?

News has a net margin of 4.22% compared to Pearson's net margin of 0.00%. News' return on equity of 5.31% beat Pearson's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pearson	N/A	N/A	N/A
News	4.22%	5.31%	2.89%

Summary

News beats Pearson on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.