ZWS vs. SON, MSM, CWST, AA, SEE, FLS, MLI, TKR, ADT, and ESAB
Should you be buying Zurn Elkay Water Solutions stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions include Sonoco Products (SON), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), Casella Waste Systems (CWST), Alcoa (AA), Sealed Air (SEE), Flowserve (FLS), Mueller Industries (MLI), Timken (TKR), ADT (ADT), and ESAB (ESAB). These companies are all part of the "industrial products" sector.
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (NYSE:ZWS) and Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, earnings, risk, profitability, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Sonoco Products pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions pays out 49.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sonoco Products pays out 42.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Sonoco Products is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
In the previous week, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions had 1 more articles in the media than Sonoco Products. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions and 2 mentions for Sonoco Products. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions' average media sentiment score of 1.16 beat Sonoco Products' score of 0.80 indicating that Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Sonoco Products received 642 more outperform votes than Zurn Elkay Water Solutions when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.27% of users gave Sonoco Products an outperform vote while only 39.22% of users gave Zurn Elkay Water Solutions an outperform vote.
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $32.25, suggesting a potential downside of 3.73%. Sonoco Products has a consensus price target of $63.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.90%. Given Sonoco Products' higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sonoco Products is more favorable than Zurn Elkay Water Solutions.
83.3% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Sonoco Products shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Sonoco Products shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sonoco Products has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions has a net margin of 7.36% compared to Sonoco Products' net margin of 7.00%. Sonoco Products' return on equity of 22.42% beat Zurn Elkay Water Solutions' return on equity.
Sonoco Products has higher revenue and earnings than Zurn Elkay Water Solutions. Sonoco Products is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Zurn Elkay Water Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions and Sonoco Products tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ZWS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis 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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