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Watsco (WSO) Competitors

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$459.61 +4.00 (+0.88%)
As of 04/30/2025 03:59 PM Eastern

WSO vs. GWW, FAST, URI, AIT, BECN, WCC, GATX, AL, MSM, and RUSHA

Should you be buying Watsco stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Watsco include W.W. Grainger (GWW), Fastenal (FAST), United Rentals (URI), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), WESCO International (WCC), GATX (GATX), Air Lease (AL), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), and Rush Enterprises (RUSHA). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.

Watsco vs.

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) and Watsco (NYSE:WSO) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Watsco shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of Watsco shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

W.W. Grainger received 212 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.10% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 53.37% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
W.W. GraingerOutperform Votes
547
53.37%
Underperform Votes
478
46.63%
WatscoOutperform Votes
335
55.10%
Underperform Votes
273
44.90%

W.W. Grainger has higher revenue and earnings than Watsco. W.W. Grainger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Watsco, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
W.W. Grainger$17.17B2.88$1.91B$38.7126.45
Watsco$7.58B2.45$536.34M$13.0135.33

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

W.W. Grainger has a net margin of 11.12% compared to Watsco's net margin of 7.04%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 52.43% beat Watsco's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
W.W. Grainger11.12% 52.43% 22.15%
Watsco 7.04%17.59%12.09%

In the previous week, Watsco had 20 more articles in the media than W.W. Grainger. MarketBeat recorded 43 mentions for Watsco and 23 mentions for W.W. Grainger. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.22 beat Watsco's score of 0.36 indicating that W.W. Grainger is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
W.W. Grainger
14 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
7 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Watsco
15 Very Positive mention(s)
3 Positive mention(s)
11 Neutral mention(s)
6 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral

W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Watsco pays an annual dividend of $12.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. W.W. Grainger pays out 21.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Watsco pays out 92.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. W.W. Grainger has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years and Watsco has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

W.W. Grainger presently has a consensus target price of $1,116.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.01%. Watsco has a consensus target price of $480.83, suggesting a potential upside of 4.62%. Given W.W. Grainger's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Watsco.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
W.W. Grainger
2 Sell rating(s)
8 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.15
Watsco
0 Sell rating(s)
6 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.14

Summary

W.W. Grainger beats Watsco on 16 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

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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WSO vs. The Competition

MetricWatscoHardware, & plumbing & heating equipment & supplies IndustryConstruction SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$18.57B$17.75B$8.25B$18.97B
Dividend Yield2.63%2.32%2.12%4.03%
P/E Ratio34.6917.9315.3932.71
Price / Sales2.452.0170.0527.84
Price / Cash36.0529.1921.4017.53
Price / Book6.066.074.094.47
Net Income$536.34M$935.89M$535.55M$1.02B
7 Day Performance2.92%1.95%1.78%2.26%
1 Month Performance-8.16%-2.73%61.48%-2.86%
1 Year Performance2.66%-2.71%75.55%5.48%

Watsco Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
WSO
Watsco
2.8797 of 5 stars
$459.61
+0.9%
$480.83
+4.6%
+2.7%$18.57B$7.58B34.697,280Analyst Revision
GWW
W.W. Grainger
3.1373 of 5 stars
$979.84
-2.3%
$1,130.89
+15.4%
+11.1%$47.24B$17.17B25.3126,000Dividend Increase
News Coverage
Positive News
FAST
Fastenal
3.0134 of 5 stars
$80.29
-1.6%
$79.10
-1.5%
+19.2%$46.04B$7.61B39.9522,400Insider Trade
Stock Split
URI
United Rentals
4.8478 of 5 stars
$571.74
-3.3%
$729.79
+27.6%
-5.4%$37.35B$15.35B14.7524,600Insider Trade
Positive News
AIT
Applied Industrial Technologies
4.0253 of 5 stars
$214.36
-3.3%
$287.14
+34.0%
+32.6%$8.23B$4.48B21.726,100Positive News
BECN
Beacon Roofing Supply
3.5766 of 5 stars
$123.65
-0.2%
$121.47
-1.8%
N/A$7.64B$9.76B21.147,480Short Interest ↑
Analyst Revision
WCC
WESCO International
4.4517 of 5 stars
$146.22
-3.3%
$219.43
+50.1%
+6.7%$7.13B$21.82B11.1920,000Positive News
GATX
GATX
2.7438 of 5 stars
$146.03
-0.7%
$161.00
+10.3%
+19.4%$5.21B$1.59B18.791,900Dividend Announcement
AL
Air Lease
4.5442 of 5 stars
$41.46
-2.3%
$55.67
+34.3%
-6.8%$4.63B$2.73B12.45150Upcoming Earnings
Positive News
MSM
MSC Industrial Direct
3.6409 of 5 stars
$75.99
-1.7%
$82.20
+8.2%
-16.2%$4.23B$3.75B18.146,990Positive News
RUSHA
Rush Enterprises
4.7913 of 5 stars
$49.77
-3.9%
$69.00
+38.6%
+16.1%$3.94B$7.80B13.348,040Earnings Report
Positive News
High Trading Volume

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This page (NYSE:WSO) was last updated on 5/1/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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