UNF vs. MGRC, KAR, HCSG, CTAS, CPRT, IRM, SCI, HRB, YELP, and CSV
Should you be buying UniFirst stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UniFirst include McGrath RentCorp (MGRC), OPENLANE (KAR), Healthcare Services Group (HCSG), Cintas (CTAS), Copart (CPRT), Iron Mountain (IRM), Service Co. International (SCI), H&R Block (HRB), Yelp (YELP), and Carriage Services (CSV).
UniFirst vs.
UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) and McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, community ranking, earnings, valuation, risk and media sentiment.
McGrath RentCorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than UniFirst. McGrath RentCorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than UniFirst, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
McGrath RentCorp received 21 more outperform votes than UniFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.11% of users gave McGrath RentCorp an outperform vote while only 52.55% of users gave UniFirst an outperform vote.
UniFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. McGrath RentCorp pays an annual dividend of $1.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. UniFirst pays out 17.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. McGrath RentCorp pays out 20.1% 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. UniFirst has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years and McGrath RentCorp has raised its dividend for 33 consecutive years. McGrath RentCorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, McGrath RentCorp had 2 more articles in the media than UniFirst. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for McGrath RentCorp and 10 mentions for UniFirst. McGrath RentCorp's average media sentiment score of 1.53 beat UniFirst's score of 1.15 indicating that McGrath RentCorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
78.2% of UniFirst shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of McGrath RentCorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of UniFirst shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of McGrath RentCorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
McGrath RentCorp has a net margin of 25.44% compared to UniFirst's net margin of 6.00%. McGrath RentCorp's return on equity of 13.68% beat UniFirst's return on equity.
UniFirst currently has a consensus target price of $180.00, indicating a potential downside of 2.45%. McGrath RentCorp has a consensus target price of $145.50, indicating a potential upside of 27.02%. Given McGrath RentCorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe McGrath RentCorp is more favorable than UniFirst.
UniFirst has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McGrath RentCorp has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
McGrath RentCorp beats UniFirst on 17 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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:UNF) was last updated on 5/22/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff