Head to Head Contrast: Amer Sports (NYSE:AS) vs. Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE)

Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE) and Amer Sports (NYSE:AS) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Lakeland Industries and Amer Sports, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lakeland Industries	1	1	3	0	2.40
Amer Sports	0	3	11	1	2.87

Lakeland Industries presently has a consensus price target of $15.00, indicating a potential upside of 46.63%. Amer Sports has a consensus price target of $44.77, indicating a potential upside of 62.43%. Given Amer Sports’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Amer Sports is more favorable than Lakeland Industries.

Risk and Volatility

Lakeland Industries has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amer Sports has a beta of 1.99, meaning that its share price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.7% of Lakeland Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.3% of Amer Sports shares are held by institutional investors. 3.4% of Lakeland Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Lakeland Industries and Amer Sports’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lakeland Industries	-13.99%	-11.35%	-6.94%
Amer Sports	7.35%	11.18%	7.02%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lakeland Industries and Amer Sports”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lakeland Industries	$192.65 million	0.53	-$25.31 million	($2.71)	-3.77
Amer Sports	$6.57 billion	2.32	$427.40 million	$0.95	29.01

Amer Sports has higher revenue and earnings than Lakeland Industries. Lakeland Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amer Sports, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Amer Sports beats Lakeland Industries on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lakeland Industries

Lakeland Industries, Inc. manufactures and sells industrial protective clothing and accessories for the industrial and public protective clothing market worldwide. It offers firefighting and heat protective apparel to protect against fire; high-end chemical protective suits to provide protection from highly concentrated, toxic and/or lethal chemicals, and biological toxins; and limited use/disposable protective clothing, such as coveralls, laboratory coats, shirts, pants, hoods, aprons, sleeves, arm guards, caps, and smocks. The company provides durable woven garments, including electrostatic dissipative apparel used in electronics clean rooms; flame resistant meta aramid, para aramid, and FR cotton coveralls/pants/jackets used in petrochemical, refining operations, and electrical utilities; FR fabrics; and cotton and polycotton coveralls, lab coats, pants, and shirts. In addition, it provides high visibility clothing comprising reflective apparel, including vests, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, coats, raingear, jumpsuits, hats, and gloves; and gloves and sleeves that are used in the automotive, glass, and metal fabrication industries. The company sells its products to a network of safety and industrial supply distributors through in-house sales teams, customer service group, and independent sales representatives. It serves end users, such as integrated oil, chemical/petrochemical, automobile, steel, glass, construction, smelting, cleanroom, janitorial, pharmaceutical, and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as scientific, medical laboratories, and the utilities industry; and federal, state, and local governmental agencies and departments. Lakeland Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.

About Amer Sports

Amer Sports, Inc. designs, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells sports equipment, apparel, footwear, and accessories in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, China, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technical Apparel, Outdoor Performance, and Ball & Racquet Sports. The Technical Apparel segment offers outdoor apparel, footwear, and accessories which includes climbing gear. The Outdoor Performance segment provides hiking and running footwear, functional apparel, skiing and snowboarding gear, and lifestyle footwear. The Ball & Racquet Sports segment offers sports equipment for tennis, baseball, american football, basketball, golf, and various other professional and recreational sports. This segment provides custom-fitting protective gear and apparel for baseball, softball, football, and lacrosse. It sells its products under the Arc'teryx, PeakPerformance, Salomon, Atomic, Armada, ENVE, Wilson, Louisville Slugger, DeMarini, EvoShield, and ATEC brands. The company distributes its products through retail stores, general sporting goods retailers, specialty stores, independently operated partner stores, and distributors, as well as its e-commerce websites, and retailer-owned and third-party e-commerce websites. The company was formerly known as Amer Sports Management Holding (Cayman) Limited and changed its name to Amer Sports, Inc. in August 2023. Amer Sports, Inc. was founded in 1950 and is based in Helsinki, Finland.