WST vs. ALGN, COO, XRAY, MMSI, HAE, NEOG, ICUI, QDEL, STAA, and ATRI
Should you be buying West Pharmaceutical Services stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of West Pharmaceutical Services include Align Technology (ALGN), Cooper Companies (COO), DENTSPLY SIRONA (XRAY), Merit Medical Systems (MMSI), Haemonetics (HAE), Neogen (NEOG), ICU Medical (ICUI), QuidelOrtho (QDEL), STAAR Surgical (STAA), and Atrion (ATRI). These companies are all part of the "health care supplies" industry.
Align Technology (NASDAQ:ALGN) and West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and community ranking.
Align Technology received 509 more outperform votes than West Pharmaceutical Services when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.71% of users gave Align Technology an outperform vote while only 55.74% of users gave West Pharmaceutical Services an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Align Technology had 12 more articles in the media than West Pharmaceutical Services. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for Align Technology and 27 mentions for West Pharmaceutical Services. West Pharmaceutical Services' average media sentiment score of 0.41 beat Align Technology's score of 0.05 indicating that Align Technology is being referred to more favorably in the media.
88.4% of Align Technology shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.9% of West Pharmaceutical Services shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Align Technology shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of West Pharmaceutical Services shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Align Technology has a beta of 1.66, suggesting that its share price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, West Pharmaceutical Services has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.
Align Technology currently has a consensus price target of $330.50, indicating a potential upside of 49.92%. West Pharmaceutical Services has a consensus price target of $442.75, indicating a potential upside of 55.47%. Given Align Technology's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe West Pharmaceutical Services is more favorable than Align Technology.
West Pharmaceutical Services has a net margin of 19.42% compared to West Pharmaceutical Services' net margin of 11.34%. Align Technology's return on equity of 20.57% beat West Pharmaceutical Services' return on equity.
West Pharmaceutical Services has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Align Technology. Align Technology is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than West Pharmaceutical Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
West Pharmaceutical Services beats Align Technology on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WST 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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