Contrasting U-Haul (UHAL) & The Competition

U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) is one of 45 publicly-traded companies in the “TRANS – SERVICES” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare U-Haul to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for U-Haul and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
U-Haul	0	1	0	0	2.00
U-Haul Competitors	450	1446	1583	93	2.37

As a group, “TRANS – SERVICES” companies have a potential upside of 5.75%. Given U-Haul’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe U-Haul has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

3.6% of U-Haul shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.5% of shares of all “TRANS – SERVICES” companies are owned by institutional investors. 43.5% of U-Haul shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.4% of shares of all “TRANS – SERVICES” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

U-Haul has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, U-Haul’s rivals have a beta of 0.87, meaning that their average share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares U-Haul and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
U-Haul	$5.91 billion	$367.09 million	37.50
U-Haul Competitors	$8.92 billion	$183.78 million	17.99

U-Haul’s rivals have higher revenue, but lower earnings than U-Haul. U-Haul 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.

Profitability

This table compares U-Haul and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
U-Haul	5.31%	4.06%	1.54%
U-Haul Competitors	6.48%	-228.77%	2.57%

Summary

U-Haul rivals beat U-Haul on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

U-Haul Company Profile

AMERCO operates as a do-it-yourself moving and storage operator for household and commercial goods in the United States and Canada. The company’s Moving and Storage segment rents trucks, trailers, portable moving and storage units, specialty rental items, and self-storage spaces primarily to the household movers; and sells moving supplies, towing accessories, and propane. It also provides uhaul.com, an online marketplace that connects consumers to independent Moving Help service providers and independent self-storage affiliates; auto transport and tow dolly options to transport vehicles; and specialty boxes for dishes, computers, and sensitive electronic equipment, as well as tapes, security locks, and packing supplies. This segment rents its products and services through a network of approximately 2,065 company operated retail moving stores and 20,100 independent U-Haul dealers. As of March 31, 2020, it had a rental fleet of approximately 176,000 trucks, 127,000 trailers, and 41,000 towing devices; and 1,745 self-storage locations with approximately 774,000 rentable storage units. The company’s Property and Casualty Insurance segment offers loss adjusting and claims handling services. It also provides moving and storage protection packages, such as Safemove and Safetow packages, which offer moving and towing customers with a damage waiver, cargo protection, and medical and life insurance coverage; Safestor that protects storage customers from loss on their goods in storage; Safestor Mobile, which protects customers stored belongings; and Safemove Plus, which provides rental customers with a layer of primary liability protection. The company’s Life Insurance segment provides life and health insurance products primarily to the senior market through the direct writing and reinsuring of life insurance, medicare supplement, and annuity policies. AMERCO was founded in 1945 and is based in Reno, Nevada.