Analyzing Canon (CAJPY) and Its Rivals

Canon (OTCMKTS:CAJPY) is one of 82 publicly-traded companies in the “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Canon to similar companies based on the strength of its risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Canon and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Canon	$29.46 billion	$2.22 billion	10.97
Canon Competitors	$23.67 billion	$3.28 billion	11.36

Canon has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. Canon 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.

Volatility and Risk

Canon has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Canon’s peers have a beta of 1.59, suggesting that their average stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Canon pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Canon pays out 39.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.4% and pay out 41.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Canon is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Canon and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Canon	0	1	0	0	2.00
Canon Competitors	1041	4254	7575	355	2.55

As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies have a potential upside of 24.66%. Given Canon’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Canon has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

51.3% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Canon shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.3% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” 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 Canon and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Canon	7.36%	9.33%	5.51%
Canon Competitors	-617.49%	-14.66%	1.39%

Summary

Canon peers beat Canon on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Canon Company Profile

Canon Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells office multifunction devices (MFDs), plain paper copying machines, laser and inkjet printers, cameras, diagnostic equipment, and lithography equipment. The company operates through four segments: Printing Business Unit, Imaging Business Unit, Medical Business Unit, and Industrial and Others Business Unit. The Printing Business Unit segment offers office MFDs, document solutions, laser multifunction printers, laser printers, inkjet printers, image scanners, calculators, digital continuous feed presses, digital sheet-fed presses, and large format printers. The Imaging Business Unit segment provides interchangeable-lens digital cameras, digital compact cameras, interchangeable lenses, compact photo printers, network cameras, video management and video content analytics software, digital camcorders, digital cinema cameras, broadcast equipment, and multimedia projectors. The Medical System Business Unit segment offers computed tomography systems, diagnostic ultrasound systems, diagnostic X-ray systems, magnetic resonance imaging systems, clinical chemistry analyzers, digital radiography systems, and ophthalmic equipment. The Industry and Others Business Unit segment provides semiconductor lithography equipment, flat panel display lithography equipment, vacuum thin-film deposition equipment, organic light-emitting diode display manufacturing equipment, die bonders, handy terminals, and document scanners. The company also provides maintenance services; and supplies replacement drums, parts, toners, and papers. It sells its products under the Canon brand through subsidiaries or independent distributors to dealers and retail outlets, as well as directly to end-users globally. Canon Inc. was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.