MRU vs. WN, EMP.A, L, SAP, PRMW, DOL, NWC, PBH, MFI, and JWEL
Should you be buying Metro stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Metro include George Weston (WN), Empire (EMP.A), Loblaw Companies (L), Saputo (SAP), Primo Water (PRMW), Dollarama (DOL), North West (NWC), Premium Brands (PBH), Maple Leaf Foods (MFI), and Jamieson Wellness (JWEL). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
George Weston (TSE:WN) and Metro (TSE:MRU) are both large-cap consumer defensive companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership and profitability.
George Weston presently has a consensus target price of C$216.67, indicating a potential upside of 13.25%. Metro has a consensus target price of C$77.86, indicating a potential upside of 4.21%. Given Metro's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe George Weston is more favorable than Metro.
Metro has a net margin of 4.64% compared to Metro's net margin of 2.56%. Metro's return on equity of 19.71% beat George Weston's return on equity.
In the previous week, George Weston had 6 more articles in the media than Metro. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for George Weston and 2 mentions for Metro. George Weston's average media sentiment score of 0.53 beat Metro's score of -0.04 indicating that Metro is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
George Weston has higher revenue and earnings than Metro. Metro is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than George Weston, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
George Weston pays an annual dividend of C$2.85 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Metro pays an annual dividend of C$1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. George Weston pays out 26.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Metro pays out 31.4% 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.
15.1% of George Weston shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.0% of Metro shares are held by institutional investors. 58.2% of George Weston shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Metro shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
George Weston has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Metro has a beta of 0.04, suggesting that its stock price is 96% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Metro received 109 more outperform votes than George Weston when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.62% of users gave George Weston an outperform vote while only 55.72% of users gave Metro an outperform vote.
Summary
George Weston beats Metro on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MRU 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 TSE 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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