Head-To-Head Survey: Edgewell Personal Care (EPC) versus Its Competitors

Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE:EPC) is one of 55 public companies in the “Personal Care Products” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Edgewell Personal Care to related businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Edgewell Personal Care and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Edgewell Personal Care	1	4	3	0	2.25
Edgewell Personal Care Competitors	896	2921	3646	227	2.42

Edgewell Personal Care presently has a consensus price target of $31.50, indicating a potential upside of 6.36%. As a group, “Personal Care Products” companies have a potential downside of 0.09%. Given Edgewell Personal Care’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Edgewell Personal Care is more favorable than its peers.

Dividends

Edgewell Personal Care pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Edgewell Personal Care pays out -30.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Personal Care Products” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.7% and pay out 48.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Edgewell Personal Care and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Edgewell Personal Care	$2.24 billion	$25.40 million	-14.81
Edgewell Personal Care Competitors	$7.78 billion	$1.11 billion	8.87

Edgewell Personal Care’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Edgewell Personal Care. Edgewell Personal Care is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk and Volatility

Edgewell Personal Care has a beta of 0.36, meaning that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Edgewell Personal Care’s peers have a beta of 0.81, meaning that their average share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.9% of Edgewell Personal Care shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.9% of shares of all “Personal Care Products” companies are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of Edgewell Personal Care shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.7% of shares of all “Personal Care Products” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Edgewell Personal Care and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Edgewell Personal Care	-4.55%	5.76%	2.35%
Edgewell Personal Care Competitors	-5.55%	-65.95%	-0.30%

Summary

Edgewell Personal Care peers beat Edgewell Personal Care on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Edgewell Personal Care

Edgewell Personal Care Company is a manufacturer and marketer of personal care products in the wet shave, sun and skin care, feminine care and infant care categories. As of September 30, 2016, the Company had a portfolio of over 25 brands. It manages its business in four segments: Wet Shave, Sun and Skin Care, Feminine Care and All Other. Its Wet shave products are sold under the Schick, Wilkinson Sword, Edge, Skintimate, Shave Guard and Personna brand names. Its Sun and Skin Care products are sold under the Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic, Wet Ones and Playtex brand names and offers Wet Ones, portable hand wipes category, and Playtex household gloves, the branded household glove in the United States. Its Feminine Care segment markets its products under the Playtex, Stayfree, Carefree and o.b. brands and markets pads and liners. Its All Other segment includes infant care, pet care and miscellaneous other products.