Contrasting Urban Outfitters (URBN) & Its Competitors

Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) is one of 285 publicly-traded companies in the “Specialty Retail” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Urban Outfitters to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Urban Outfitters and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Urban Outfitters	0	8	9	0	2.53
Urban Outfitters Competitors	3674	15593	21618	590	2.46

Urban Outfitters currently has a consensus target price of $90.54, suggesting a potential upside of 6.89%. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies have a potential upside of 7.37%. Given Urban Outfitters’ rivals higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Urban Outfitters has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Urban Outfitters and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Urban Outfitters	$6.17 billion	$464.92 million	13.21
Urban Outfitters Competitors	$7.05 billion	$386.47 million	32.98

Urban Outfitters’ rivals have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Urban Outfitters. Urban Outfitters is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk and Volatility

Urban Outfitters has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Urban Outfitters’ rivals have a beta of 1.91, suggesting that their average stock price is 91% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Urban Outfitters and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Urban Outfitters	8.79%	18.64%	10.34%
Urban Outfitters Competitors	-3.69%	-13.95%	3.18%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.6% of Urban Outfitters shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.9% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by institutional investors. 32.1% of Urban Outfitters shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 20.5% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Urban Outfitters beats its rivals on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters, Inc. engages in the retail and wholesale of general consumer products. The company operates through three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Nuuly. It operates Urban Outfitters stores, which offer women's and men's fashion apparel, activewear, intimates, footwear, accessories, home goods, electronics, and beauty products for young adults aged 18 to 28; and Anthropologie stores that provide women's apparel, accessories, intimates, shoes, and home furnishings, as well as gifts, decorative items, and beauty and wellness products for women aged 28 to 45. The company also operates Terrain stores that provide lifestyle home products, garden and outdoor living products, antiques, live plants, flowers, wellness products, and accessories. In addition, it operates Free People retail stores, which offer casual women's apparel, intimates, activewear, shoes, accessories, home products, gifts, and beauty and wellness products for young women aged 25 to 30; and restaurants, as well as women's apparel subscription rental service under the Nuuly brand. Further, the company is involved in the wholesale of young women's contemporary casual apparel, intimates, activewear, and shoes under the Free People brand; and apparel collections under the Urban Outfitters brand. The company serves its customers directly through retail stores, websites, mobile applications, catalogs and customer contact centers, franchisee-owned stores, and department and specialty stores, as well as social media and third-party digital platforms. Urban Outfitters, Inc. was founded in 1970 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.