MRU vs. WN, EMP.A, ATD.A, ATD.B, DOL, NWC, PRMW, JWEL, SOY, and VFF
Should you be buying Metro stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Metro include George Weston (WN), Empire (EMP.A), Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.A), Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.B), Dollarama (DOL), North West (NWC), Primo Water (PRMW), Jamieson Wellness (JWEL), SunOpta (SOY), and Village Farms International (VFF). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
Metro vs.
George Weston (TSE:WN) and Metro (TSE:MRU) are both large-cap consumer defensive companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, media sentiment, community ranking and earnings.
Metro received 122 more outperform votes than George Weston when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.91% of users gave George Weston an outperform vote while only 57.53% of users gave Metro an outperform vote.
17.3% of George Weston shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.6% of Metro shares are owned by institutional investors. 56.1% of George Weston shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Metro shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
George Weston has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Metro has a beta of 0.02, indicating that its stock price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Metro has a net margin of 4.52% compared to George Weston's net margin of 3.18%. George Weston's return on equity of 21.35% beat Metro's return on equity.
In the previous week, George Weston had 6 more articles in the media than Metro. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for George Weston and 0 mentions for Metro. Metro's average media sentiment score of -0.09 beat George Weston's score of -0.79 indicating that Metro is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
George Weston presently has a consensus price target of C$196.33, suggesting a potential upside of 19.08%. Metro has a consensus price target of C$76.67, suggesting a potential upside of 9.04%. Given George Weston's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe George Weston is more favorable than Metro.
George Weston pays an annual dividend of C$2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Metro pays an annual dividend of C$1.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. George Weston pays out 22.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Metro pays out 33.8% 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.
George Weston has higher revenue and earnings than Metro. George Weston is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Metro, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
George Weston beats Metro on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MRU and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of TSE 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.
