Watsco (WSO) Competitors

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

Which has better valuation & earnings, GWW or WSO?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.W. Grainger	$17.24B	3.00	$1.91B	$38.95	27.68
Watsco	$7.58B	2.38	$536.34M	$13.01	34.19

Is GWW or WSO a better dividend stock?

W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $9.04 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 2.7%. W.W. Grainger pays out 23.2% 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 55 consecutive years and Watsco has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Is GWW or WSO more profitable?

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. Grainger	11.12%	52.43%	22.15%
Watsco	7.04%	17.59%	12.09%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of GWW or WSO?

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 insiders. Comparatively, 12.8% of Watsco shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger presently has a consensus target price of $1,123.13, suggesting a potential upside of 4.19%. Watsco has a consensus target price of $486.67, suggesting a potential upside of 9.41%. Given Watsco's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Watsco is more favorable than W.W. Grainger.

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

Which has more volatility and risk, GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor GWW or WSO?

In the previous week, W.W. Grainger had 5 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for W.W. Grainger and 10 mentions for Watsco. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat Watsco's score of 1.34 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	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Watsco	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor GWW or WSO?

W.W. Grainger received 212 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 54.92% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 53.26% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
W.W. Grainger	Outperform Votes 547 53.26%	Underperform Votes 480 46.74%
Watsco	Outperform Votes 335 54.92%	Underperform Votes 275 45.08%

Summary

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