Xylem (XYL) vs. Its Competitors Head-To-Head Survey

Xylem (NYSE:XYL) is one of 436 public companies in the “Machinery” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Xylem to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Xylem and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Xylem	$9.04 billion	$957.00 million	22.00
Xylem Competitors	$4.76 billion	$363.05 million	3.66

Xylem has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Xylem is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Xylem and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Xylem	11.94%	12.06%	7.51%
Xylem Competitors	-1,044.47%	-15.12%	0.54%

Risk and Volatility

Xylem has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Xylem’s competitors have a beta of 4.69, suggesting that their average share price is 369% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Xylem pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Xylem pays out 41.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Machinery” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.8% and pay out 24.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Xylem has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Xylem lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Xylem and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Xylem	2	7	9	0	2.39
Xylem Competitors	4190	14674	18172	803	2.41

Xylem presently has a consensus price target of $121.31, indicating a potential upside of 31.27%. As a group, “Machinery” companies have a potential upside of 32.05%. Given Xylem’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Xylem has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

88.0% of Xylem shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.7% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Xylem shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Xylem beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Xylem Company Profile

Xylem Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and servicing of engineered products and solutions worldwide. It operates through four segments: Water Infrastructure, Applied Water, Measurement & Control Solutions, and Integrated Solutions and Services. The Water Infrastructure segment offers products, including water, storm water, and wastewater pumps; controls and systems; filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment equipment; and mobile dewatering equipment and rental services under the ADI, Flygt, Godwin, Sanitaire, Magneto, Neptune Benson, Ionpure, Leopold, Wedeco, and Xylem Vue brands. The Applied Water segment provides pumps, valves, heat exchangers, controls, and dispensing equipment systems under the Goulds Water Technology, Bell & Gossett, A-C Fire Pump, Standard Xchange, Lowara, Jabsco, Xylem Vue, and Flojet brands. The Measurement & Control Solutions segment offers smart meters, networked communication devices, data analytics, test equipment, controls, sensor devices, software and managed services, and critical infrastructure services; and software and services, including cloud-based analytics, remote monitoring and data management, leak detection, condition assessment, asset management, and pressure monitoring solutions, as well as testing equipment. This segment sells its products under the Pure Technologies, Sensus, Smith Blair, WTW, Xylem Vue, and YSI brands. The Integrated Solutions and Services segment provides maintenance services, mobile services, digital outsourced solutions, wastewater systems, environmental remediation, odor and corrosion control, filtration, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, and deionization under Aquapro, WaterOne, and Ion Pure brands. Xylem Inc. was formerly known as ITT WCO, Inc. and changed its name to Xylem Inc. in May 2011. Xylem Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia.