Pearson (PSO) Competitors

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

Which has more risk and volatility, NWS or PSO?

News has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pearson has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is NWS or PSO a better dividend stock?

News pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Pearson pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. News pays out 9.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pearson pays out 46.8% 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.

Is NWS or PSO more profitable?

News has a net margin of 13.21% compared to Pearson's net margin of 0.00%. News' return on equity of 5.66% beat Pearson's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
News	13.21%	5.66%	3.19%
Pearson	N/A	N/A	N/A

Do analysts recommend NWS or PSO?

Pearson has a consensus price target of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 24.01%. Given Pearson's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Pearson is more favorable than News.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
News	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	4.00
Pearson	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, NWS or PSO?

News has higher revenue and earnings than Pearson. 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
News	$8.45B	2.28	$1.18B	$2.08	16.37
Pearson	$4.54B	2.09	$554.61M	$0.94	15.44

Does the media prefer NWS or PSO?

In the previous week, News had 11 more articles in the media than Pearson. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for News and 4 mentions for Pearson. News' average media sentiment score of 0.11 beat Pearson's score of 0.03 indicating that News is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
News	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Pearson	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in NWS or PSO?

14.6% of News shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.1% of Pearson shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.7% of News shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Pearson shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

News beats Pearson on 16 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.