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Watsco (WSO) Competitors

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$530.16 +46.47 (+9.61%)
Closing price 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$535.88 +5.72 (+1.08%)
As of 07:55 PM Eastern
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WSO vs. GWW, URI, FAST, AIT, WCC, BECN, GATX, AL, RUSHA, and MSM

Should you be buying Watsco stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Watsco include W.W. Grainger (GWW), United Rentals (URI), Fastenal (FAST), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), WESCO International (WCC), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), GATX (GATX), Air Lease (AL), Rush Enterprises (RUSHA), and MSC Industrial Direct (MSM). 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 industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking and valuation.

80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Watsco shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of Watsco shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

W.W. Grainger received 213 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.41% 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
546
53.37%
Underperform Votes
477
46.63%
WatscoOutperform Votes
333
55.41%
Underperform Votes
268
44.59%

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 $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. W.W. Grainger pays out 21.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Watsco pays out 83.5% 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 increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years and Watsco has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

In the previous week, Watsco had 1 more articles in the media than W.W. Grainger. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Watsco and 23 mentions for W.W. Grainger. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.42 beat Watsco's score of 1.36 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
19 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Watsco
19 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
4 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

W.W. Grainger presently has a consensus price target of $1,148.56, indicating a potential upside of 11.87%. Watsco has a consensus price target of $488.33, indicating a potential downside of 6.65%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Watsco.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
W.W. Grainger
1 Sell rating(s)
9 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.23
Watsco
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.40

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

W.W. Grainger has a net margin of 11.12% compared to Watsco's net margin of 6.99%. 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 6.99%17.77%12.28%

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$17.17B2.91$1.91B$38.7126.52
Watsco$7.28B2.90$536.34M$12.9440.43

Summary

W.W. Grainger beats Watsco on 14 of the 21 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$21.11B$19.33B$8.87B$20.34B
Dividend Yield2.28%2.12%1.92%3.67%
P/E Ratio40.4019.9121.8445.93
Price / Sales2.902.3369.6516.29
Price / Cash32.6427.1622.6420.33
Price / Book7.887.426.155.73
Net Income$536.34M$935.89M$520.55M$1.00B
7 Day Performance10.83%4.24%-0.40%0.48%
1 Month Performance5.27%2.89%-1.53%1.44%
1 Year Performance37.14%12.27%49.56%16.11%

Watsco Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
WSO
Watsco
3.7202 of 5 stars
$530.16
+9.6%
$488.33
-7.9%
+27.2%$21.41B$7.28B40.977,425Earnings Report
News Coverage
Positive News
Gap Up
High Trading Volume
GWW
W.W. Grainger
4.3196 of 5 stars
$1,038.42
+0.5%
$1,148.56
+10.6%
+9.8%$50.57B$17.17B26.8326,000Short Interest ↓
Positive News
URI
United Rentals
4.8186 of 5 stars
$747.16
+0.9%
$814.08
+9.0%
+14.0%$48.80B$15.35B19.2827,900Positive News
FAST
Fastenal
4.2038 of 5 stars
$73.72
-0.2%
$76.91
+4.3%
+6.5%$42.23B$7.55B36.6823,201Short Interest ↑
AIT
Applied Industrial Technologies
4.1592 of 5 stars
$263.76
+0.6%
$291.43
+10.5%
+40.2%$10.12B$4.48B26.726,500Short Interest ↓
Positive News
WCC
WESCO International
2.8112 of 5 stars
$185.32
-0.3%
$215.88
+16.5%
+35.1%$9.08B$22.39B14.8420,000Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast
High Trading Volume
BECN
Beacon Roofing Supply
3.8752 of 5 stars
$118.54
-1.0%
$120.17
+1.4%
+40.2%$7.34B$9.12B20.268,063
GATX
GATX
2.2963 of 5 stars
$164.70
-0.4%
$161.00
-2.2%
+30.2%$5.85B$1.59B21.202,020Short Interest ↓
AL
Air Lease
4.9037 of 5 stars
$45.95
-0.2%
$57.60
+25.4%
+20.4%$5.12B$2.68B10.47150Positive News
RUSHA
Rush Enterprises
4.522 of 5 stars
$59.67
-3.1%
$69.00
+15.6%
+29.3%$4.72B$7.93B15.838,040Earnings Report
News Coverage
Positive News
MSM
MSC Industrial Direct
3.8285 of 5 stars
$80.58
+0.5%
$83.80
+4.0%
-18.0%$4.50B$3.80B19.237,423News Coverage
Positive News

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This page (NYSE:WSO) was last updated on 2/18/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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