Comparing Dillard’s (DDS) and Its Peers

Dillard’s (NYSE:DDS) is one of 142 publicly-traded companies in the “Broadline Retail” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Dillard’s to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Dividends

Dillard’s pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Dillard’s pays out 2.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Broadline Retail” companies pay a dividend yield of 28.7% and pay out 11.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Dillard’s has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

67.2% of Dillard’s shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.4% of shares of all “Broadline Retail” companies are held by institutional investors. 34.8% of Dillard’s shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 24.0% of shares of all “Broadline Retail” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Dillard’s and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dillard’s	10.09%	31.43%	15.63%
Dillard’s Competitors	-3.17%	-34.71%	-1.48%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Dillard’s and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dillard’s	2	3	0	0	1.60
Dillard’s Competitors	1356	5322	10708	295	2.56

Dillard’s currently has a consensus target price of $521.33, indicating a potential downside of 18.91%. As a group, “Broadline Retail” companies have a potential upside of 18.05%. Given Dillard’s’ peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Dillard’s has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Risk & Volatility

Dillard’s has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dillard’s’ peers have a beta of -1.27, suggesting that their average share price is 227% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Dillard’s and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dillard’s	$6.47 billion	$570.19 million	15.29
Dillard’s Competitors	$43.56 billion	$1.73 billion	-220.68

Dillard’s’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Dillard’s. Dillard’s is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Dillard’s beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Dillard’s

Dillard’s, Inc. engages in the retail of fashion apparel, cosmetics, and home furnishings, and other consumer goods. It operates through the Retail Operations and Construction segments. The Retail Operations segment comprises sells cosmetics, ladies’ apparel, ladies’ accessories and lingerie, juniors’ and children’s apparel, men’s apparel and accessories, shoes, and home and furniture products. The Construction segment constructs and remodels stores through CDI Contractors, LLC. The company was founded by William Thomas Dillard in 1938 and is headquartered in Little Rock, AR.