Head to Head Contrast: America’s Car-Mart (NASDAQ:CRMT) versus Children’s Place (NASDAQ:PLCE)

America’s Car-Mart (NASDAQ:CRMT) and Children’s Place (NASDAQ:PLCE) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.1% of America’s Car-Mart shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.4% of America’s Car-Mart shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Children’s Place shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for America’s Car-Mart and Children’s Place, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
America’s Car-Mart	1	2	0	0	1.67
Children’s Place	1	1	0	0	1.50

America’s Car-Mart presently has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 631.07%. Children’s Place has a consensus target price of $3.25, indicating a potential upside of 33.20%. Given America’s Car-Mart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe America’s Car-Mart is more favorable than Children’s Place.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares America’s Car-Mart and Children’s Place”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
America’s Car-Mart	$1.09 billion	0.02	-$139.11 million	($23.80)	-0.08
Children’s Place	$1.21 billion	0.04	-$88.26 million	($4.84)	-0.50

Children’s Place has higher revenue and earnings than America’s Car-Mart. Children’s Place is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than America’s Car-Mart, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

America’s Car-Mart has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Children’s Place has a beta of 1.97, meaning that its share price is 97% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares America’s Car-Mart and Children’s Place’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
America’s Car-Mart	-18.21%	-15.19%	-4.73%
Children’s Place	-9.09%	N/A	-12.53%

Summary

Children’s Place beats America’s Car-Mart on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About America’s Car-Mart

America’s Car-Mart, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an automotive retailer for the used car market in the United States. It primarily sells older model used vehicles and provides financing for its customers. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Rogers, Arkansas.

About Children’s Place

The Children’s Place, Inc. engages in the provision of apparel, footwear, accessories, and other items for children. The firm also designs contracts to manufacture and sell fashionable and value-priced merchandise under the brand names of The Children’s Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree. It operates through The Children’s Place U.S. and The Children’s Place International segments. The Children’s Place U.S. segment refers to the company’s U.S. and Puerto Rico-based stores and revenue from its U.S. based wholesale business. The Children’s Place International segment is involved in the Canadian-based stores, revenue from the company’s Canadian-based wholesale business, as well as revenue from international franchisees. The company was founded by David Pulver and Clinton A. Clark in 1969 and is headquartered in Secaucus, NJ.