Head to Head Survey: American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) & Home Product Center Public (OTCMKTS:HPCRF)

Home Product Center Public (OTCMKTS:HPCRF) and American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Dividends

Home Product Center Public pays an annual dividend of $0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.3%. American Eagle Outfitters pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Home Product Center Public pays out 10.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Eagle Outfitters pays out 30.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. American Eagle Outfitters has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Home Product Center Public is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Home Product Center Public and American Eagle Outfitters”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Home Product Center Public	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.26	0.73
American Eagle Outfitters	$5.50 billion	0.51	$191.98 million	$1.62	10.26

American Eagle Outfitters has higher revenue and earnings than Home Product Center Public. Home Product Center Public is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Eagle Outfitters, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

3.4% of Home Product Center Public shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of American Eagle Outfitters shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of American Eagle Outfitters shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Home Product Center Public and American Eagle Outfitters’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Home Product Center Public	N/A	N/A	N/A
American Eagle Outfitters	5.01%	20.95%	8.34%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Home Product Center Public and American Eagle Outfitters, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Home Product Center Public	0	0	0	0	0.00
American Eagle Outfitters	1	12	2	0	2.07

American Eagle Outfitters has a consensus target price of $20.09, suggesting a potential upside of 20.83%. Given American Eagle Outfitters’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Eagle Outfitters is more favorable than Home Product Center Public.

Summary

American Eagle Outfitters beats Home Product Center Public on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Home Product Center Public

Home Product Center Public Company Limited operates as a home improvement retailer in Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The company trades in various goods and materials for construction, addition, refurbishment, renovation, and improvement of buildings, houses, and residences; and offers related services to retail businesses. It also provides installation, maintenance, warehousing management and distribution, and other services; and utilities services. In addition, the company rents space; and engages in the wholesaling of construction and home improvement products. Home Product Center Public Company Limited was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

About American Eagle Outfitters

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. operates as a multi-brand specialty retailer in the United States and internationally. The company provides jeans, apparel and accessories, and personal care products for women and men under the American Eagle brand; and intimates, apparel, activewear, and swim collections under the Aerie and OFFLINE by Aerie brands. It also offers menswear products under the Todd Snyder New York brand; and fashion clothing and accessories under the Unsubscribed brand. The company sells its products through own and licensed retail stores; concession-based shops-within-shops; and digital channels, such as www.ae.com, www.aerie.com, www.toddsnyder.com, and www.unsubscribed.com. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.