NWC vs. EMP.A, JWEL, SOY, MFI, RSI, PBH, PRMW, MRU, WN, and L
Should you be buying North West stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of North West include Empire (EMP.A), Jamieson Wellness (JWEL), SunOpta (SOY), Maple Leaf Foods (MFI), Rogers Sugar (RSI), Premium Brands (PBH), Primo Water (PRMW), Metro (MRU), George Weston (WN), and Loblaw Companies (L). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
North West (TSE:NWC) and Empire (TSE:EMP.A) are both consumer defensive companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.
North West has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Empire has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.
North West pays an annual dividend of C$1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Empire pays an annual dividend of C$0.73 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. North West pays out 58.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Empire pays out 24.2% 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.
Empire has higher revenue and earnings than North West. Empire is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than North West, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Empire had 4 more articles in the media than North West. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Empire and 5 mentions for North West. North West's average media sentiment score of 0.00 beat Empire's score of -0.18 indicating that North West is being referred to more favorably in the media.
North West presently has a consensus target price of C$41.20, indicating a potential upside of 5.29%. Empire has a consensus target price of C$38.43, indicating a potential upside of 20.24%. Given Empire's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Empire is more favorable than North West.
34.7% of North West shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.9% of Empire shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of North West shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Empire shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Empire received 78 more outperform votes than North West when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 51.90% of users gave North West an outperform vote while only 45.87% of users gave Empire an outperform vote.
North West has a net margin of 5.23% compared to Empire's net margin of 2.46%. North West's return on equity of 19.84% beat Empire's return on equity.
Summary
Empire beats North West on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NWC 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 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.
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