WSO.B vs. FERG, WSO, DHI, CRH, URI, LEN, OTIS, PWR, MLM, and VMC
Should you be buying Watsco stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Watsco include Ferguson (FERG), Watsco (WSO), D.R. Horton (DHI), CRH (CRH), United Rentals (URI), Lennar (LEN), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), Quanta Services (PWR), Martin Marietta Materials (MLM), and Vulcan Materials (VMC).
Watsco (NYSE:WSO.B) and Ferguson (NASDAQ:FERG) are both large-cap construction companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and community ranking.
Watsco has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ferguson has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Watsco received 53 more outperform votes than Ferguson when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.11% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 40.00% of users gave Ferguson an outperform vote.
Ferguson has higher revenue and earnings than Watsco. Ferguson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Watsco, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Ferguson has a consensus price target of $230.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.27%. Given Ferguson's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ferguson is more favorable than Watsco.
Watsco pays an annual dividend of $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Ferguson pays an annual dividend of $3.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Watsco pays out 83.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ferguson pays out 34.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
In the previous week, Ferguson had 18 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Ferguson and 5 mentions for Watsco. Ferguson's average media sentiment score of 0.45 beat Watsco's score of 0.25 indicating that Ferguson is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
0.1% of Watsco shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.0% of Ferguson shares are held by institutional investors. 13.8% of Watsco shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Ferguson shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Watsco has a net margin of 7.03% compared to Ferguson's net margin of 6.33%. Ferguson's return on equity of 36.89% beat Watsco's return on equity.
Summary
Ferguson beats Watsco on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WSO.B 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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