Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) Competitors

Howden Joinery Group (LON:HWDN) and DS Smith (LON:SMDS) are both mid-cap consumer cyclical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, HWDN or SMDS?

DS Smith has higher revenue and earnings than Howden Joinery Group. DS Smith is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Howden Joinery Group, 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
Howden Joinery Group	£2.31B	2.05	£254.60M	£0.46	1,878.09
DS Smith	£7.43B	0.66	£463M	£0.34	1,043.76

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of HWDN or SMDS?

71.9% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.5% of DS Smith shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Howden Joinery Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of DS Smith shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts rate HWDN or SMDS?

Howden Joinery Group presently has a consensus price target of GBX 856.43, indicating a potential downside of 0.87%. DS Smith has a consensus price target of GBX 386.75, indicating a potential upside of 8.98%. Given DS Smith's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe DS Smith is more favorable than Howden Joinery Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Howden Joinery Group	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71
DS Smith	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Is HWDN or SMDS a better dividend stock?

Howden Joinery Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 21 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. DS Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 18 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. Howden Joinery Group pays out 4,565.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. DS Smith pays out 5,294.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Does the media favor HWDN or SMDS?

In the previous week, Howden Joinery Group had 4 more articles in the media than DS Smith. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Howden Joinery Group and 2 mentions for DS Smith. Howden Joinery Group's average media sentiment score of 0.80 beat DS Smith's score of 0.53 indicating that Howden Joinery Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Howden Joinery Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
DS Smith	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is HWDN or SMDS more profitable?

Howden Joinery Group has a net margin of 11.02% compared to DS Smith's net margin of 6.37%. Howden Joinery Group's return on equity of 27.52% beat DS Smith's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Howden Joinery Group	11.02%	27.52%	10.34%
DS Smith	6.37%	10.77%	4.39%

Which has more volatility and risk, HWDN or SMDS?

Howden Joinery Group has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, DS Smith has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HWDN or SMDS?

DS Smith received 10 more outperform votes than Howden Joinery Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 72.39% of users gave Howden Joinery Group an outperform vote while only 67.06% of users gave DS Smith an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Howden Joinery Group	Outperform Votes 666 72.39%	Underperform Votes 254 27.61%
DS Smith	Outperform Votes 676 67.06%	Underperform Votes 332 32.94%

Summary

Howden Joinery Group beats DS Smith on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.