Financial Comparison: Buckle (NYSE:BKE) versus Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT)

Buckle (NYSE:BKE) and Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Buckle and Haverty Furniture Companies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Buckle	0	2	0	0	2.00
Haverty Furniture Companies	1	1	0	0	1.50

Buckle presently has a consensus price target of $46.00, indicating a potential upside of 4.43%. Given Buckle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Buckle is more favorable than Haverty Furniture Companies.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Buckle and Haverty Furniture Companies”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Buckle	$1.30 billion	1.75	$209.74 million	$4.34	10.15
Haverty Furniture Companies	$758.99 million	0.54	$19.73 million	$1.47	17.85

Buckle has higher revenue and earnings than Haverty Furniture Companies. Buckle is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Haverty Furniture Companies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Buckle and Haverty Furniture Companies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Buckle	16.62%	46.91%	20.97%
Haverty Furniture Companies	3.10%	6.96%	3.21%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

53.9% of Buckle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.6% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by institutional investors. 38.4% of Buckle shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Buckle pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Haverty Furniture Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Buckle pays out 32.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Haverty Furniture Companies pays out 89.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Haverty Furniture Companies has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Haverty Furniture Companies is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

Buckle has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Haverty Furniture Companies has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Buckle beats Haverty Furniture Companies on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Buckle

The Buckle, Inc. is a specialty retailer of casual apparel, footwear and accessories. Its stores offer clothing for men and women, with a particular focus on denim, alongside tops, outerwear, shoes and fashion accessories. The company sells merchandise from national brands as well as private-label lines, and combines its in-store business with online sales. Its retail locations serve customers across the United States. Founded in Nebraska in 1948 as Mills Clothing, the company later adopted The Buckle name.

About Haverty Furniture Companies

Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. is a home furnishings retailer that sells furniture, mattresses and home accessories through its Havertys stores and online. Its merchandise includes products for living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms and other areas of the home, with offerings from both national brands and its own private-label collections. Founded in Atlanta in 1885, the company has grown from a single furniture store into a regional retailer serving customers across parts of the southeastern and midwestern United States.