WH Smith (SMWH) Competitors

Pets at Home Group (LON:PETS) and WH Smith (LON:SMWH) are both small-cap consumer cyclical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, community ranking, earnings, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Is PETS or SMWH a better dividend stock?

Pets at Home Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 13 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. WH Smith pays an annual dividend of GBX 32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Pets at Home Group pays out 8,125.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. WH Smith pays out 6,530.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Which has more risk and volatility, PETS or SMWH?

Pets at Home Group has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WH Smith has a beta of 1.58, suggesting that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate PETS or SMWH?

Pets at Home Group currently has a consensus price target of GBX 407.50, suggesting a potential upside of 37.67%. WH Smith has a consensus price target of GBX 1,967.50, suggesting a potential upside of 81.67%. Given Pets at Home Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe WH Smith is more favorable than Pets at Home Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pets at Home Group	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
WH Smith	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PETS or SMWH?

WH Smith received 45 more outperform votes than Pets at Home Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 73.50% of users gave Pets at Home Group an outperform vote while only 62.42% of users gave WH Smith an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Pets at Home Group	Outperform Votes 430 73.50%	Underperform Votes 155 26.50%
WH Smith	Outperform Votes 475 62.42%	Underperform Votes 286 37.58%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of PETS or SMWH?

73.4% of Pets at Home Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.9% of WH Smith shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.9% of Pets at Home Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of WH Smith shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, PETS or SMWH?

Pets at Home Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than WH Smith. Pets at Home Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WH Smith, 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
Pets at Home Group	£1.45B	0.96	£82.90M	£0.16	1,850.00
WH Smith	£1.86B	0.76	£64M	£0.49	2,210.20

Does the media refer more to PETS or SMWH?

In the previous week, Pets at Home Group had 4 more articles in the media than WH Smith. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Pets at Home Group and 2 mentions for WH Smith. WH Smith's average media sentiment score of 0.09 beat Pets at Home Group's score of -0.01 indicating that Pets at Home Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Pets at Home Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
WH Smith	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is PETS or SMWH more profitable?

Pets at Home Group has a net margin of 5.71% compared to Pets at Home Group's net margin of 3.44%. Pets at Home Group's return on equity of 22.29% beat WH Smith's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pets at Home Group	5.71%	8.30%	4.62%
WH Smith	3.44%	22.29%	6.62%

Summary

WH Smith beats Pets at Home Group on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.