AHT vs. EXPN, FERG, RR, BA, RTO, IAG, HLMA, MRO, ITRK, and SPX
Should you be buying Ashtead Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ashtead Group include Experian (EXPN), Ferguson (FERG), Rolls-Royce Holdings plc (RR), BAE Systems (BA), Rentokil Initial (RTO), International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), Halma (HLMA), Melrose Industries (MRO), Intertek Group (ITRK), and Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX). These companies are all part of the "industrials" sector.
Ashtead Group (LON:AHT) and Experian (LON:EXPN) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk, profitability, dividends, community ranking and earnings.
Ashtead Group has a beta of 1.31, indicating that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Experian has a beta of 0.64, indicating that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.
60.5% of Ashtead Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.0% of Experian shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Ashtead Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Experian shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Ashtead Group has higher revenue and earnings than Experian. Ashtead Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Experian, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Ashtead Group received 43 more outperform votes than Experian when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.26% of users gave Ashtead Group an outperform vote while only 69.47% of users gave Experian an outperform vote.
Ashtead Group currently has a consensus price target of GBX 4,970.63, indicating a potential downside of 13.76%. Experian has a consensus price target of GBX 3,394, indicating a potential downside of 8.05%. Given Experian's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Experian is more favorable than Ashtead Group.
In the previous week, Experian had 3 more articles in the media than Ashtead Group. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Experian and 7 mentions for Ashtead Group. Experian's average media sentiment score of 0.63 beat Ashtead Group's score of 0.36 indicating that Experian is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Experian has a net margin of 15.20% compared to Ashtead Group's net margin of 15.17%. Experian's return on equity of 26.69% beat Ashtead Group's return on equity.
Ashtead Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Experian pays an annual dividend of GBX 44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Ashtead Group pays out 2,721.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Experian pays out 4,943.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ashtead Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Ashtead Group beats Experian 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 AHT 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 LON 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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