MSM vs. WSO, AIT, WCC, BECN, AL, GATX, RUSHA, HEES, DXPE, and WLFC
Should you be buying MSC Industrial Direct stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of MSC Industrial Direct include Watsco (WSO), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), WESCO International (WCC), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Air Lease (AL), GATX (GATX), Rush Enterprises (RUSHA), H&E Equipment Services (HEES), DXP Enterprises (DXPE), and Willis Lease Finance (WLFC). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.
MSC Industrial Direct vs. Its Competitors
MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) and Watsco (NYSE:WSO) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, community ranking, valuation, earnings and risk.
MSC Industrial Direct presently has a consensus price target of $86.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.24%. Watsco has a consensus price target of $486.67, indicating a potential upside of 12.85%. Given Watsco's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Watsco is more favorable than MSC Industrial Direct.
Watsco has a net margin of 7.04% compared to MSC Industrial Direct's net margin of 6.21%. MSC Industrial Direct's return on equity of 17.80% beat Watsco's return on equity.
MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Watsco has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Watsco had 4 more articles in the media than MSC Industrial Direct. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Watsco and 2 mentions for MSC Industrial Direct. Watsco's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat MSC Industrial Direct's score of 0.77 indicating that Watsco is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
MSC Industrial Direct pays an annual dividend of $3.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Watsco pays an annual dividend of $12.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. MSC Industrial Direct pays out 89.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Watsco pays out 92.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. MSC Industrial Direct has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Watsco has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. MSC Industrial Direct is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
MSC Industrial Direct received 66 more outperform votes than Watsco when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 54.92% of users gave Watsco an outperform vote while only 52.49% of users gave MSC Industrial Direct an outperform vote.
79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Watsco shares are held by institutional investors. 18.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.8% of Watsco shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Watsco has higher revenue and earnings than MSC Industrial Direct. MSC Industrial Direct is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Watsco, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Watsco beats MSC Industrial Direct on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MSM and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE 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.
MSC Industrial Direct Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:MSM) was last updated on 6/14/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
