Xylem (XYL) and Its Competitors Head-To-Head Review

Xylem (NYSE:XYL) is one of 39 publicly-traded companies in the “Waste Removal Svcs” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Xylem to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Xylem and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Xylem	0	3	6	0	2.67
Xylem Competitors	323	1116	1892	130	2.53

Xylem currently has a consensus target price of $143.71, suggesting a potential upside of 13.42%. As a group, “Waste Removal Svcs” companies have a potential upside of 10.00%. Given Xylem’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Xylem is more favorable than its rivals.

Dividends

Xylem pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Xylem pays out 43.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Waste Removal Svcs” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.0% and pay out 50.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Xylem has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Xylem is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

88.0% of Xylem shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.0% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Xylem shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.9% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Xylem	10.54%	10.12%	6.62%
Xylem Competitors	-97.71%	-458.29%	-3.74%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Xylem and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Xylem	$8.56 billion	$890.00 million	34.06
Xylem Competitors	$3.35 billion	$263.08 million	31.36

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

Risk & Volatility

Xylem has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Xylem’s rivals have a beta of 0.63, suggesting that their average stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Xylem beats its rivals on 13 of the 15 factors compared.

About Xylem

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.