ESCO Technologies (ESE) Competitors

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) and ESCO Technologies (NYSE:ESE) are both industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Do analysts prefer LECO or ESE?

Lincoln Electric presently has a consensus price target of $225.29, suggesting a potential upside of 14.73%. ESCO Technologies has a consensus price target of $120.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.96%. Given ESCO Technologies' higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lincoln Electric is more favorable than ESCO Technologies.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lincoln Electric	2 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
ESCO Technologies	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Is LECO or ESE a better dividend stock?

Lincoln Electric pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. ESCO Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Lincoln Electric pays out 30.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ESCO Technologies pays out 8.4% 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. Lincoln Electric has raised its dividend for 29 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, LECO or ESE?

Lincoln Electric has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ESCO Technologies has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of LECO or ESE?

79.6% of Lincoln Electric shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.7% of ESCO Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Lincoln Electric shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of ESCO Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LECO or ESE?

Lincoln Electric received 34 more outperform votes than ESCO Technologies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.68% of users gave Lincoln Electric an outperform vote while only 58.56% of users gave ESCO Technologies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lincoln Electric	Outperform Votes 441 59.68%	Underperform Votes 298 40.32%
ESCO Technologies	Outperform Votes 407 58.56%	Underperform Votes 288 41.44%

Is LECO or ESE more profitable?

Lincoln Electric has a net margin of 13.23% compared to Lincoln Electric's net margin of 9.94%. ESCO Technologies' return on equity of 43.81% beat Lincoln Electric's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lincoln Electric	13.23%	43.81%	16.50%
ESCO Technologies	9.94%	8.83%	5.79%

Does the media favor LECO or ESE?

In the previous week, Lincoln Electric had 8 more articles in the media than ESCO Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Lincoln Electric and 2 mentions for ESCO Technologies. Lincoln Electric's average media sentiment score of 0.46 beat ESCO Technologies' score of 0.17 indicating that ESCO Technologies is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lincoln Electric	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
ESCO Technologies	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has higher valuation and earnings, LECO or ESE?

Lincoln Electric has higher revenue and earnings than ESCO Technologies. Lincoln Electric is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ESCO Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lincoln Electric	$4.13B	2.70	$545.25M	$9.42	20.85
ESCO Technologies	$956.03M	2.94	$92.54M	$3.81	28.64

Summary

Lincoln Electric beats ESCO Technologies on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.