WSO vs. GWW, URI, FAST, WCC, AIT, BECN, AL, GATX, MSM, and RUSHA
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), WESCO International (WCC), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Air Lease (AL), GATX (GATX), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), and Rush Enterprises (RUSHA). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.
Watsco (NYSE:WSO) and W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) are both large-cap construction companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.
W.W. Grainger received 213 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.46% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 54.03% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.
W.W. Grainger has a net margin of 10.94% compared to Watsco's net margin of 7.03%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 54.31% beat Watsco's return on equity.
Watsco has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Watsco pays an annual dividend of $10.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Watsco pays out 83.1% 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 pays out 22.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
Watsco currently has a consensus price target of $404.25, suggesting a potential downside of 14.88%. W.W. Grainger has a consensus price target of $959.44, suggesting a potential upside of 4.12%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Watsco.
In the previous week, W.W. Grainger had 10 more articles in the media than Watsco. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for W.W. Grainger and 6 mentions for Watsco. Watsco's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat W.W. Grainger's score of 0.32 indicating that Watsco is being referred to more favorably in the media.
89.7% of Watsco shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.9% of Watsco shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
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.
Summary
W.W. Grainger beats Watsco on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WSO 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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